Scooter Libby resigned immediately upon learning about his indictment, creating an opening for a powerful job in Dick Cheney’s office. Who Cheney tapped would offer us some indication about how he plans to proceed in the wake of this of this scandal.
By naming David Addington as his new chief of staff, Cheney is speaking volumes. Addington may not be a household name, but I suspect many Americans are familiar with his work.
Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to courts.
Addington also led the fight with Congress and environmentalists over access to information about corporations that advised the White House on energy policy. He was instrumental in the series of fights with the Sept. 11 commission and its requests for information. And he was a main backer of the nomination of Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes II for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Haynes’s confirmation has been a source of huge friction on Capitol Hill.
Colleagues say Addington stands out for his devotion to secrecy in an administration noted for its confidentiality…. Even in a White House known for its dedication to conservative philosophy, Addington is known as an ideologue, an adherent of an obscure philosophy called the unitary executive theory that favors an extraordinarily powerful president.
In fact, it was this belief that led Addington to co-author torture memos, including the notion that Bush didn’t have to follow the Geneva Convention’s prohibitions.
“This was somebody who worked very hard to make sure the advice of senior military officials and national security professionals on the question of interrogation policies was ignored,” [Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch] said. “The result was an unmitigated disaster for the United States.”
Of course, Addington was also up to his ears in the Plame scandal. As National Journal reported, he was not only deeply involved in damage-control efforts deflecting criticism of the White House, but Addington also attended strategy sessions in 2003 on how to discredit Joseph Wilson.
But wait, there’s more.
While Addington got a promotion to Libby’s job, John Hannah has also been bumped up to serving as Cheney’s new assistant for national security. And Hannah was a “principal point of contact” for fraudulent intelligence generated by the controversial Iraqi National Congress before the U.S. invasion began. In other words, when the White House needed “proof” about Iraqi WMD and connections to terrorism, it relied on defectors’ bogus claims — which were given directly to Hannah — to make the case that the war was necessary.
At yesterday’s White House press briefing, a reporter noted the highly controversial backgrounds of Cheney’s new top staffers and asked, “Can you address the message that was sent today by the vice president?”
McClellan said Cheney “values their judgment and their insight,” but the political message is more obvious. Cheney isn’t going to alter the make up of his staff; he isn’t going to back down from obvious mistakes and wrongdoing; and he’s going to resist any efforts to change.
The only lesson the White House has learned from the Plame scandal is that they’ve been reckless and arrogant for five years — and they like it that way.