Republicans Ready to Slime Fitzgerald :Joe Conason

[jbfam4]

Republicans Ready
to Slime Fitzgerald
By Joe Conason

http://www.observer.com/opinions_conason.asp

Circled in a bristling perimeter around the White House, the friends and allies of Mr. Rove can soon be expected to fire their rhetorical mortars at Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the White House exposure of C.I.A. operative Valerie Wilson. Indeed, the preparations for that assault began months ago in the editorial columns of The Wall Street Journal, which has tarred Mr. Fitzgerald as a “loose cannon” and an “unguided missile.”

Evidently Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, will lead the next foray against the special prosecutor. This week the Senator’s press office announced his plan to hold hearings on the Fitzgerald probe. That means interfering with an “ongoing investigation,” as the White House press secretary might say, but such considerations won’t deter the highly partisan Kansan.

Of course, it was Mr. Rove’s aggressively partisan style that first sparked the scandal now threatening to ruin him, back when he and other Bush administration officials “outed” Ms. Wilson in an attempt to discredit her dissenting husband during the summer of 2003. Had they not decided to leak classified information for partisan purposes, there would be no grand jury pondering indictments today.

Such ironies won’t discourage the Rove Republicans from pursuing the scorched-earth strategy that has served them so well, however. Nor will those politicians and pundits pause to consider how odd their complaints about an overreaching special prosecutor will sound, emanating from once-fervent supporters of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr and his Whitewater legal jihad.

From their perspective, it’s all part of the same cynical game. If Mr. Starr was subject to sharp criticism, then Mr. Fitzgerald should be a legitimate target, too. They won’t remember how they once decried Mr. Starr’s critics for “obstructing justice.”

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1. Of course Fitz is a "loose cannon"

isn't that what an independent prosecutor is supposed to be? :wtf:

[whistle]

2. Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald is one of their own, is he not.....

....appointed by pResident Bush to "get to the bottom of this investigation". So, are the rethuglicans sliming Fitzgerald
because he failed to go all the way to the bottom where he would turn up nothing and instead he is getting close to the truth?

[still_one]

3. This one will backfire on them

[HawkerHurricane]

4. Good Grief.

The intelligence committee chairman is quite willing to investigate the investigation of a intelligence security failure, BUT NOT THE FAILURE ITSELF.

I say, give Mr. Fitzgerald a 70 million dollar budget, and a mandate to investigate anything that catches his eye about the Bush admin... do to Bush what they did to Clinton, and see what happens.

[Cassandra]

6. 70 million wouldn't even cover...

the printing costs of what Bush has done wrong.

[Son of California]

5. smearing works

if the American people would discover some class and not be swayed by it, no one would use it anymore.
but peopel are stupid and perverted and love that crap
what ever helps them to avoid questioning their presuposed Ideology...

[mikehiggins]

7. The difference, this time, is that the media will not be on their side

which can make ALL the difference. Of course, Fitzgerald may well want to subpoena Senator Roberts to discover whether HE had any meetings with White House officials to kick off his investigation.

Can a Senator claim "executive privilege"?

Would he have the balls to lie to a Grand Jury, even for the Clown Prince?

[depakid]

8. Huh?

From what I can tell, the media wholly and completely behind the far right- to the extent that it nothing more than a propaganda wing for the Republican party.

No- every single American network and the vast majority of all of the newspapers will bend over backwards to protect the Republicans from pretty well any exposure of the truth.