Cheney’s Plame Game role under scrutiny

October 17, 2005

Bloomberg reports this morning that Plame Game questions are not limited to Karl Rove and Scooter Libby — they’ve also reached the vice president.

A special counsel is focusing on whether Vice President Dick Cheney played a role in leaking a covert CIA agent’s name, according to people familiar with the probe that already threatens top White House aides Karl Rove and Lewis Libby.

The special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, has questioned current and former officials of President George W. Bush’s administration about whether Cheney was involved in an effort to discredit the agent’s husband, Iraq war critic and former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson, according to the people.

Fitzgerald has questioned Cheney’s communications adviser Catherine Martin and former spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise and ex-White House aide Jim Wilkinson about the vice president’s knowledge of the anti-Wilson campaign and his dealings on it with Libby, his chief of staff, the people said. The information came from multiple sources, who requested anonymity because of the secrecy and political sensitivity of the investigation.

There have been several hints in this direction. Yesterday, Judith Miller wrote that Fitzgerald specifically questioned her in front of the grand jury about “whether Mr. Cheney had known what his chief aide was doing and saying.”

Indeed, this follows up on Cheney-related suspicions from two weeks ago. The NYT noted that Cheney may have been partially involved with the effort to smear Joseph Wilson. Moreover, on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos said that “a source close to this” told him that “President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions.” (From context, it seemed Stephanopoulos was referring to smearing Wilson by outing Plame when he referred to “discussions.”)

I’m not exactly prepared to start drawing up short lists for who could replace Cheney as Bush’s VP, but the very idea that Cheney could be indicted as part of a White House criminal conspiracy is almost too entertaining to even type.

Fitzgerald’s status differs in one potentially important respect from the independent counsels who investigated alleged wrongdoing during earlier administrations. They reported to a panel of appellate judges, while Fitzgerald reports to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who at least theoretically must approve any indictment.
CB,
This is from the same Bloomberg article as you quote. What are the chance of another Saturday Night Massacre? Such a move, this time around, would have a better chance of stemming the bleeding, then it did during Watergate, since Congress would be unlikely to reopen the wound with its own investigation.
We know two things about Bush: He’s bold and dim. This type of move would appeal to him.

  • This could solve a couple of problems. Cheney retires to the Eastern Shore for health reasons, Bush picks Harriet as his VP, and gets to pick a fire breathing dragon of the right for SCOTUS vacancy.

  • “it seemed Stephanopoulos was referring to smearing Wilson by outing Plame”

    The real game afoot was to out Plame by smearing Wilson.

    This fits in with the counterattack by Libby et al. against the dissident faction in the CIA engaged in Libby’s so called “perverted war.”

    Whose side do you think Plame was on?

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