Now that Libby knows he's up the creek, will he work out a deal?

[FourStarDemocrat]

How about telling *everything* he knows--enough to send Cheney AND Bush up the creek? Maybe even Karl will do likewise, to avoid jail time? Anything's possible.. I'm willing to let them off easy if we can get Bush and Dick 's ass in the fryer, with convictions. Maybe Fitzgerald is too. Any thoughts?

[MuseRider]

1. I originally

thought that Karl would squeal like a pig and possibly Libby too but then I got to thinking. Would you squeal on Cheney? :scared:

I have no idea what they will do.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. All it would take

would be for one person facing indictment to get so scared that he rats out everyone. It's that easy.

Now, given the lack of character and integrity shown by this bunch, that should be pretty simple.

But - and this is a big hurdle - the Bush Family Machine would be out there, to get them and everyone they ever loved, including the family hamster. You've seen this before in bad Mafia movies.

So, should there prove to be indictments forthcoming, who would break ranks and become the canary?

Interesting thought. They're all such pigs.

[FourStarDemocrat]

3. I think the power of the Bush Crime Family machine is waning..

maybe it won't seem as much of a threat as say, 3 years ago. Much of that fierceness came from Karl Rove himself and now he's wrapped in it. Karen Hughes has no power apart from Bush, the elder Bushes don't weild a lot of power anymore. There are others.. But if you're talking about one of them ordering a "hit".. yeah, that still is conceivable.

edit:sp

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. No, I'm not talking about Rove or Hughes

I'm talking about Barbara Bush.

She's Michael Corleone, only with rabies.

Or Caligula.

Or both.

[Neil Lisst]

6. Old Leftie, I think the game plan would be ...

Rove and Libby stonewall, fight the case, and never implicate Jr. or Cheney. If they lose, they appeal, and before all appeals are exhausted, Dubya pardons them, after the 2006 elections and before he leaves office in 2009.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. That's a likely scenario,

assuming Rove and Libby are the only ones indicted.

See, what I'm looking for - and I'll bet Fitzgerald has one - is a relatively low-level staffer who knows just enough to be a good singer.

If these people are as smart as I think they are, they made sure that the left hand never knew what the right hand was doing. That would make it almost impossible for anyone to implicate anyone else.

Remember his father's pardons of Weinberger et al. in the Iran-Contra scandal? He never even let it get to indictment, as I recall. I could be wrong about that, though.

A big thank-you to my favorite unindicted co-conspirator, The Big Dick Nixon and his fluffer, Gerry Ford.

They're such weenies, Republican bullies.

[Neil Lisst]

10. OldLeftie, That would be the ideal, and he may have that ...

... but I think Libby and Rove know the drill. They have to have only 2-3 top level operatives involved, with no underlings directly involved. Rove, Libby, and Hadley are the perps, as I allude to in my political comic here

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. That's EXCELLENT!

Well done, Neil.

That already happened, right?

;)

[damntexdem]

11. How many of them will care about their families, including the hamsters,

if they find their own asses in the sling?

[rosesaylavee]

4. That may be why Fitz is taking his time with this

whole process. He's waiting for the fear to build and build until one of them breaks open and spills the beans.

And as for the * family, all they have to do is stay out of small planes and seedy hotels, right?

:)

[TahitiNut]

5. There are FOUR Cheney aides who've testified. Which one will turn?

Cheney is sitting at the nexus of the spider web, acting as the de facto President as we've all known for years. The question is which one of his "loyal" aides will be the first to cut a deal.

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby?? Chief of Staff to Cheney
Mary Matalin?? Senior Advisor Cheney
John Hannah?? Aide to Cheney
Catherine Martin?? Assistant to Cheney for Public Affairs

[Pithy Cherub]

7. Libby's choices are how fully to take the hit.

The evidence is around the Plame outing and the war, BUT Libby knows where more bodies/secrets are buried. Cheney made him his secret keeper. The brinksmanship is to see if Fitzgerald knows even more than Libby. The Libby loyalty to Cheney may extend to his spending a couple years in prison.

The question becomes does Fitzgerald have enough info to make it seem like Libby and Cheney are outing each other. That would be very similar to what Fitz did with Rove and Libby. Fitzgerald is treating this like a mob prosecution, take on the players with the knowledge(WHIG), have more than one out or turn on a more powerful member until you get to the really big fish. Ironically, Bush can claim he wasn't always in the loop on his own administration's actions. (Plane into WH airspace, etc, etc.). Will this get an Emmy for reality TV next year. :evilgrin:

:popcorn:

[stop the bleeding]

13. Yes, I was thinking the same thing, Fitz seems to be able to make

different players out each other even if they don't know it's happening.

Also we must remember that there are other players that may have spilled the beans/outed information/people as well.

1. Ari F.
2. Colin P
3. Any Ex CIA employee/operative
4. __________

[Pithy Cherub]

15. WHIG or NSC players are the big fish.

Colin was a principal and everyone knows this happend on Condileeza's watch - which would preclude her from being president. Especially IF she has to testify about her hapless NSA deputy, Stephen Hadley...

[stop the bleeding]

16. My money is on Colin, it would be the cherry on his career and

I think he wouldn't mind seeing a lot of people in this admin. go down hard, especially after his embarrassing speech in front of the UN. This guy was a stand up guy with a lot of clout in DC and around the world and now late comic shows use him for jokes. I don't think we have heard of the last of him yet.

Hot or Cold nothing is as sweet as revenge.

[hang a left]

18. FBI agents that worked the case early on while Ashcroft was in

charge.

[mmonk]

23. I'm really hoping a number 3

and that number 3 being someone whom the others questioned are unaware of.

[ken_g]

14. One "John Dean" is all we need. One person who knows they're

being setup to take the fall, then squeel like a pig.

[jazzjunkysue]

17. Who can he ante up? Cheney? B***? What's he got to trade?

[FourStarDemocrat]

19. All he's got to say is that Cheney gave him the orders, or that Cheney or

Bush were sitting in during the original meetings. It's very simple.. talk and walk, or get a reduced sentence.

And on another note, since Judy's still not giving up one source..I also think that they should have supoenaed Miller's phone records from that period, both her cell and landlines.

[Dinger]

20. Maybe, But It'll Be Too Late (nt)

[FourStarDemocrat]

21. Why, you think Fitz has already enough on * and Cheney not to need him?

I hope that's the case, if you were implying that.

[Catrina]

22. In the end, this investigation

was simply to find out who leaked the identity of a covert agent and her network, to six reporters, one of whom, Robert Novak, published the information.

That person had to have the security clearance to have the information. That person probably did not leak to reporters directly, but gave the information to others, who then maybe, gave it to others who passed it through a filter to get to the press.

I have never seen a list of how many people had that clearance.

We know that both Bush and Cheney had it.

Did Tenet, Libby, Bolton, Hadley, Andrew Card, Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice have it?

We know Rove, Ari Fleischer, Mary Matalin, Karen Hughes, Alberto Gonzalez did not have it either.

Another question, could those who had it, legally pass it on to anyone else?

If the answer to the last question is 'no', then Fitzgerald's list of suspects can only include anyone who had the clearance to get the information.

I'm just guessing, but I think that would be:

Bush, Cheney, Tenet. I don't know who else, and no matter how they filtered it down the line before it got to the press, the original leaker was one of those who had clearance. That is what Fitzgerald has to find out. Maybe now he knows, maybe it was both Bush and Cheney!