Dems unimpressed by Scooter’s replacements

November 3, 2005

Maybe it was the Libby indictment, or the latest poll numbers, or just a general sense of disgust, but the Dems are acting this week like the gloves are officially off. For a minority party on the offensive, Dems on the Hill are looking at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and see a “target rich” environment. At this point, they’re not holding back.

The latest came yesterday when Dems went after the new not-so-dynamic duo recently promoted to run Dick Cheney’s operation.

Democrats are accusing President Bush of going back on his word by promoting aides allegedly connected to the outing of CIA spy Valerie Plame, according to a letter obtained by the Daily News.

With Lewis (Scooter) Libby set to plead innocent today in federal court, the two men who replaced him are in the line of fire of the four Democrats who plotted the Senate shutdown this week and forced the GOP to resume a probe into flawed pre-Iraq war intelligence.

Vice President Cheney’s new chief of staff, David Addington, and his national security adviser, John Hannah, are the latest targets of Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

In a letter to Cheney, expected to be released today, they charge Libby’s indictment suggests that Addington and Hannah were “connected with the Plame affair” and that their promotions signal “business as usual” at the White House. Bush has previously promised to fire anyone involved in the leaks.

“Instead of cleaning house, you simply rearranged some of the furniture,” the Democrats wrote. “To date, the White House has expressed no concern, no regret, no apology, and no explanation for what happened in the Valerie Plame case.”

Excellent. That’s a solid, hard-hitting message. And on top of the substance, this kind of effort lets the White House know Dems aren’t letting anything slide. Good for them.

Still no mention of the word “Treason” though. It’s a start but if you want to grab Joe America’s attention, you need to start calling a spade a spade. Someone in the White House committed Treason.

  • Now that Frist has opened the door on the Intel committee looking at pre-war admin manipulation of intelligence, it is time that to hitch the Plame wagon to it by having the committe look at that as well.

  • If the Dems accuse the White House of Treason it’ll make the Democratic Party look bad NOT the White House. Fox News will spin it as the Democrates being taken over by “loony Howard Dean leftists” and the people will be turned off big time.

  • CBBB, you may be right that calling them “traitors”is not a great idea, but the reason you gave is completely, utterly, totally wrong.

    Explain to me what exactly we *can* do to avoid FOX spinning us in a bad way? Then explain to me again why we should try to appease FOX? What would be the point? And finally how we can win *anything*, *ever* by living in fear of what FOX says or thinks, or letting them determine what we can and cannot do or say?

    Why we should let FOX determine the limits of our agenda, tactics, and goals?

    The time to be wimpy, cowering chickenshits is over. I don’t give a flying fuck what FOX says or does, or what nasty, hurtful names they call us. If we live in fear of them, they will destroy us. There is no way to appease, negotiate, or reason with FOX. They are a radical force and they will not reciprocate any self-restraint we might show them. To hell with them.

    We need to do 1) what is the right thing, and 2) what will enable us to take back our country so that we can do (1).

    They can call Dean a Communist, yak-fucking Satanist for all I care. It’s clearly name-calling with nothing to back it up.

    However, Rove, Libby, Cheney, and Shrub, however, are TRAITORS. They have sold out the national security of the United States of America for partisan gain. We will soon see if they have committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors– if it is provable and will hold up in a court of law. Once they are fairly convicted by a jury of their peers, it will be 100% safe and factual– as well as perfectly fair– to call them what they are: traitors.

    Indeed you could argue that it would be premature to brand them traitors before they are convicted. Might buy that. But to argue that we have to do what will make FOX happy? No fucking way. There is no way to make FOX happy except to put guns to our heads and kill ourselves. I ain’t going down like that.

  • Yeah, what Goat said.

    Also, why is it when the Repug talking heads (Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) yell treason, no one has a problem with it. Granted, maybe it shouldn’t be the Dem senators and congressmen yelling it. But someone has to say it…and say it loudly and often.

    Someone in the White House committed Treason! They gave aid to our enemies by identifying an undercover CIA operative during a time of war.
    Where’s this generation’s Woodward and Bernstein???? Someone has to step up!

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