Guest Post by Morbo
Republicans have been laboring day and night to besmirch the reputation of special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. It doesn’t work, because Fitzgerald is known to be impartial and fair.
Which is why I say he should be replaced immediately by a partisan hack. After all, turnabout is fair play. President Bill Clinton had to endure an interminable investigation by Kenneth Starr, a prominent Republicans and known Clinton foe. Why should Bush administration figures get a fair investigator? I say put Michael Moore in charge of the thing.
I’m kidding, of course. I want Fitzgerald to stay in the post and see the investigation through. But I wanted to bring up this subject because I believe now is the logical time to play “compare and contrast” between Whitewater and the Plame Game — just in case anyone has forgotten what a real political scandal looks like.
What Clinton did can’t even be called a scandal. Republicans wouldn’t let go of Whitewater and the subsequent Lewinsky eruption, but they were always weak reeds. The Plame Game, which involves real cover-ups, real lies and real serious violations of the law, is a good, old-fashioned Washington scandal we can all sink our teeth into. And it couldn’t have happened to nicer administration.
Let’s put Whitewater and Plame side by side, shall we?
Allegation made
Whitewater: Clinton and his wife improperly benefited from a decades-old land deal in which they lost money. Clinton’s inappropriate sexual relationship with a young woman was a later add-on.
Plame Game: High-ranking administration officials exposed undercover CIA agent because they were angry with her husband, a diplomat who had disrupted an ongoing administration campaign to mislead Americans about the need to go to war in Iraq by exposing one of their key claims as false.
Were the activities illegal?
Whitewater: No.
Plame Game: Yes.
Did the activities damage national security?
Whitewater: No.
Plame Game: Yes.
Cost of investigation to the taxpayer
Whitewater: $64 million
Plame Game: TBA (though, at $723,000 in his first 15 months, Fitzgerald has proven himself to be quite frugal)
What the taxpayers got for that money
Whitewater: Sleazy and salacious report focusing on the sexual peccadilloes of president. Similar material could have been had for $5 in a back issue of “Hustler.”
Plame Game: TBA; possibility of eventual return of government into the hands of grown-ups.
My choice for hero
Whitewater: Susan McDougall, who went to jail rather than submit to Starr’s intimidation and rat out a friend.
Plame Game: Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who has withstood numerous assaults from the right-wing character assassination machine with poise and dignity.
End result
Whitewater: No charges against president or his wife. Final report read, “This office determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct.”
Plame Game: TBA; has outside chance of exposing banal evil of entire administration, could end reign of “Turd Blossom.”
Sit tight everyone. With any luck, it’s going to be a very bumpy ride.