And then they came for Fitzgerald

July 28, 2005

There have been hints — some subtle, some not — that Republicans may soon turn their rhetorical guns on special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As those hints get less restrained, I think we can safely predict where these guys are going.

It started two weeks ago, when House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) started complaining to the Justice Department about Fitzgerald’s office. Shortly thereafter, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, appearing on Meet the Press, said he had “tremendous confidence” in Fitzgerald, but when asked if he’d still have confidence in him if indictments started coming down, Mehlman would only say “I’m not going to speculate.” The right’s disparagements were captured perfectly by William Safire, who vilified Fitzgerald as a “runaway prosecutor.”

More recently, the writing on the wall has grown bolder. Former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) said this week he believes there is mounting “political pressure” to oppose Fitzgerald’s reappointment as a U.S. Attorney, once his term ends this fall. Indeed, House Speaker Dennis Hastert has notably rejected calls to support another term for the prosecutor.

As Joe Conason noted, it’s about to get worse.

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.

These guys never learn. After going after Wilson, Plame, and even Matt Cooper, do they really think smearing Fitzgerald is the appropriate next step? Alas, the right seems to know no other way.

Alas, the right seems to know no other way.

Well, it’s what they do: ad homenim as a basic political strategy.

It’s been the basic approach right from the beginning. The entire Iraq war was originally sold as a way of getting Mr. Super Duper Bad Guy Saddam. When Wilson dared write in public that some of the reasons for thinking Saddam was dangerous didn’t make sense, the response was to launch a personal attack against Wilson and his wife: “Sissy! Your wifey got you your job!” Now that Fitzgerald is looking dangerous to them, they revert to form, with more personal attacks.

  • What was it that Bill Moyer said a few months ago, the only thing that conservatives hate worse than liberals is the truth, and the quickest way to get branded as a liberal is to tell the truth.

    Are we to assume that Mr. Fitzgerald has been a closet liberal all this time.

  • Just when I think the GOP and republicans in government can’t go any lower, get any worse, or be more hypocritical – they go and prove me wrong.

    What is amazine to me is that there are so many instance of them justifying their actions when they would be all over this if a Democrat was president or Democrats congrolled Congress.

  • Jeez, you guys are off the mark. This has been an elaborate plan of the left for years, I read about it on Free Republic. First you see, Wilson conspired with his wife to go to Niger, then LIED about what he found there, but didn’t tell the Bush admin nothing about that. Then, through the help of Matt Cooper, who’s wife works for that bitch Hillary, they set up this trap to ensnare the good and honorable Rove and bring down Bush like they’ve been trying to do since day one of his presidency. Fitzgerald comes in when he played squash with Bruce Springsteen, a notorious Bush hater and friend of the Wilsons, who subversively suggested to Ashcroft that Fitzy was a good man. (Ashcroft, who first heard of Springsteen after 9/11 and his feel-good America-ballad, had called Springsteen to get some songwriting advice and hit it off after that).

    And the media just plays along cuz they’re run by Soros.

  • Alex – I have a friend that insists that Kerry was supposed to lose the election so that Hillary could win in 2008. I think that I am starting to see the grand master plan by the Illuminati.

    If people would ever do some reading they might see that the agenda for PNAC (Project for Nuts And Cockroaches) is the real conspiracy. Sigh.

  • Of course. Loyalty to party dogma comes before all else, including justice and national security.

  • How transparently deceitful can these Bush apologists be when they demonize Fitzgerald while at the same time there have been NO leaks out of his investigation? Sure, supposedly there are people “faimiliar with someone’s testimony” or “been briefed on the case ” but (unless I missed something) there are NO confirmed leaks of WHAT the findings might be, or EVEN IF there will any indictments. I think the right is trying to “poison the well” in advance, so that when the indictments come down they can say “see, we told you he was biased, and corrupt, and incompetent.”

    There once were two old sayings: “If the facts are on your side, then argue the facts; if the law is on your side, then argue the law; if neither the law nor the facts are on your side, then bullshit.” AND “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bullshit.”

    The Rethugs have gone these two sayings one better: “Regardless of the facts and the law, bullshit AND lie from start to finish.” Pathetic that this is the party that America thinks will keep it safe. Riiiggghhht….

  • Could someone put up a timeline of the Watergate events and then compare it to what’s happening now. I believe we are approaching October 20, 1973, the Saturday Night Massacre. Of course I don’t see Gonzalez or anyone linked to the administration taking a stand when Fitzgerald is fired, the way the AG and Deputy AG did when Archibald Cox was eliminated.

  • That’s brilliant. Screw with him and hopefully he’ll go light on the prosecution? Threaten this as his last case and hopefully he won’t finish with a flurry?

  • So far, the attacks seem meek and off the mark.
    “Loose cannon?” Ridiculous. Nobody knows what
    kind of case he’s put together. He’s anything but a
    loose cannon. A hard nosed prosecutor, yes.

    “Misguided missile?” Outrageous. The guy’s like
    a laser beam, on target.

    There’re also a number of charges all coming under
    the overzealous category. That won’t resonate with
    the fair-minded public. Ironically, it’s the Republicans
    who pounded away on the tough-on-crime issue for
    decades. Now they’re trying to unring that bell in this
    case.

    So far, the Fitzgerald smears are simply ineffective.
    Nothing like the Swift Boat veterans who really sliced
    up Kerry, in the minds of millions.

    It’s interesting, too, to contemplate what they haven’t
    come up with to attack Wilson and Plame. Think
    about it. If they had anything at all, they’d be comparing
    them to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, screaming
    for their heads as traitors.

    I wonder what would have happened if Kenneth Starr
    and Patrick Fitzgerald exchanged roles. Sort of a
    Twilight Zone episode.

    Eeek! What a horror to contemplate. I like to think
    that Bill and Hillary are actually innocent.

  • Stupidity seems to have no limits with the GOP these days. Actually,
    I say “go for it!” If they are dumb enough to take on a man who has
    taken down members of Al queda, the mob, and Chicago politicians
    then they deserve what they get. Pressuring Fitzgerald might get these
    morons a little document in the mail ( or better delivered by federal marshals) containing an indictment with their names on it. Interfering with a federal prosecutor is a stupid move (and maybe a fatal one). So much for “the rule of law.” The only “law” these jackals obey is the law of the jungle. If they’re not careful they could wind up in the lion’s jaws as
    dinner.

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