Sunday Discussion Group

July 24, 2005

Let’s face it, the White House scandal over the Bush gang’s leaking the identity of an undercover CIA agent needs a good name. I’ve been calling it the “Plame Game” for a long while, but only because I like bad puns.

All the great political scandals have simple, straightforward, easy-to-remember names. Watergate, Iran-Contra, Teapot Dome, XYZ Affair, Abscam, and so on. What should we call this one?

Ideally, I’m looking for a name that can be easily embraced by the mainstream, as the names with previous scandals were. “Treasongate” has been making the rounds, and it’s not bad, but it’s hard to imagine it getting picked up by everyone. The Daily Show used “Rove Actually” the other day, as a take off of the movie Love Actually, but that’s a little clunky for everyday use.

So, what’s it going to be?

I don’t have a suggestion yet but, please, let’s not have a “gate” in it. That’s way overused. Also, I personally would like to see it be much broader than Rove or any particular player (except maybe Bush). I’ll think about it and see if I can come up with something.

  • Sorry smiley,

    My suggestion is “West-wing-Gate”. This story is much larger than just Rove; it involves the entire West Wing of the White House, including most likely all the way up to Bush himself.

    If you don’t like that one, how about simply “W4” for “W’s Wicked West Wing”?

    I can see all of the headlines now:

    IMPEACHMENT NEAR FOR BUSH AND CHENEY?
    “Patrick Fitzgerald, the Justice Department’s Special Counsel conducting the W’s Wicked West Wing (W4) scandal investigation, announced today that he has submitted his final report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for their use in conducting investigations that many say will lead to the impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. Today’s announcement comes exactly one month to the day after the Special Counsel unsealed his grand jury indictments against a total of ten individuals on numerous charges, including espionage, treason, violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice.

    “Those indicted include seven White House West Wing staffers, including Karl Rove, the President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice-President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, and 5 more. Also indicted at the same time were John R. Bolton, whom President Bush recently appointed to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations without Senate approval during Congress’ August recess ; Judith Miller, a reporter with the New York Times, who has been in jail since early July for refusing to cooperate with Fitzgerald’s W4 investigation; and syndicated columnist and self-described “long-time GOP tool” Robert Novak, who for the first time in history deliberately “outed” an undercover C.I.A. agent, Valerie Plame, with his July 14, 2003 column.

    “Since the indictments were handed down, the President fired Rove and Libby, and the Vice-President has had a massive anger-induced heart attack and then lapsed into a coma following his public shouting frenzy demanding that Fitzgerald ‘go f**k himself’ after the indictments were public unsealed. The Congress has been busy too, having convened special impeachment subcommittees within their respective Judiciary Committees, and fired Bill Frist as Senate Majority Leader and Denny Hastert as Speaker of the House. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had already resigned his seat following his indictment on 33 counts of campaign and electoral fraud by Texas Prosecutor Danny Earle.

    “Yes, indeed, President Bush has for the first time admitted a mistake: while on his way to his Texas ranch, Bush was overheard grumbling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, ‘I should have fired Patrick Fitzgerald when I had the chance.’ Others near to the President, having acknowledged a whole series of misjudgments, blind spots and hubris, traced the administration’s mistakes all the way back to President Bush’s May 2003 statement to the Iraqi insurgents to ‘bring ’em on’ – and the rest, as they say, is history.”

    DAMN, I would love to see some version similar to this in print before the 2006 mid-term elections. I know, I know, I’m dreaming. But Sundays are spiritual for me, and maybe this prayer will be answered!!

  • I don’t love “West-wing-Gate” but A.L. is definitely right about not limiting the focus to Rove. “Rovegate” and “the Rove scandal” aren’t big enough — it leaves out Libby, Hadley, Cheney, Bush.

    Maybe the name should be built around the word “leak” since that’s what got the scandal started?

  • I don’t think Novak should get off scott-free in this – I go for “Novak affair”, “Novak Leak”, or “Niger-Novak”

  • How about the “Plame Affair?” I heard that one when this first got started and liked it. It’s sexy and that gets it noticed.

  • Yeah, absolutely no “gate” anywhere near this one!

    I like the “Rove-Plame Affair” because it kind of vaguely suggests 1950’s British political scandals — gives it a stylized, retro look, which is quite trendy. Also, for the many not paying attention, it suggests sex might be involved, which is also titillating to the unconscious of the otherwise uninterested, who, apparently constitute an electoral majority.

  • Karl’s Coverup

    When the book is written afterwards they can call it “Shame of the Nation”

  • Lots of good suggestions above. And I wonder if we could get China’s national press to run with Analytical Liberal’s news story like they did with one of The Onion’s? My own suggestion would be NigerJam.

  • I have no good suggestion for a name for the overall scandal, but I would like offer a nickname for the proposed new member of the Supreme Court:

    Mr. Justice NotKarlRove.

  • I’m sticking with “No Gate” until I see some charges filed,
    because nothing has stuck to these guys yet.

  • I think many have missed the larger picture. This is about war and the reasons for it. This Whitehouse lied to the American people to scare us into accepting what they knew would be a war otherwise unacceptable. I nominate “Bush’s war lies”.

    This man deserves impeachment if for no other fact that the republicans set the bar with Clinton. If Clinton deserved impeachment for lying about an adultrous affair then surely Bush and his entire administration deserve impeachment and worse for compromising national security in an attempt to gain political advantage?

  • “The Identity Crisis”

    I believe this captures what must at the moment be widespread panic in the West Wing ,as well as, Republican circles. Also, at another, rather obscure level, adolescents have identity crises and the Bush gang does behave like a bunch of adolescents.

  • Hey burro, I thought of it first – you just posted it first.

    Take the rein’s smiley, I’ll ride shotgun.

  • Another slightly off-topic response: I caught this phrase over at AmericaBlog (commenting on Frank Rich’s column this morning), but I think people need to really push the use of the phrase “12-hour gap.”

    “12 hour gap.”

    It ties back in people’s minds to the Nixon tape’s 18-minute gap, but this time the West Wing had 12 hours. It refers, of course, to the 12-hour gap between when Gonzalez found out about the Justice Dept investigation, until he told the WH to preserve evidence.

  • I like “Turdgate” too, but since Karl Rove is clearly now only the tip of this iceberg scandal, I nominate “Turdberg”.

  • I like turdgate too, even though I said I didn’t want “gate” in there. I DO want turd in there, however. On further reflection, “gate” hits it with the “general public”.

    burro, the reins are now in the hands of whoever at Kos coined the term (thanks Lucy99). I am now just a passenger.

    I also think the 12-hour gap needs to be POUNDED into the heads of the press and the public. Seeing Schieffer latch on to it this morning was a good sign.

  • Since l’affaire Plame is but one thread in a mighty rope with which we hope the administration hangs itself, and if we have to keep the “gate” in it, I’d suggest BushGate since that keeps him fully labelled and “framed” for the rest of history. It takes Poppy (Meester Iran-Contra) down with him as well, not to mention killing off the political ambitions of additional Bushes.

  • Bruce Anderson:

    I like your drift but we shouldn’t get too hung up on the word “lies.” I mean if it plays well, OK, but the GOP will certainly say that it’s difficult to find Bush outright lying — and they’ll be right about that.

    The scandal is about the WH’s biased use of intelligence. They pushed for favorable intelligence to be generated, ignored intel that didn’t favor their case, etc. That’s what this is about.

  • How about “12-hour Turdblossom White-House Yellow-Cake Neo-Con Plame-Out”? That would be one very long word in German. It would also make a pretty good name for a rock group (or the complete lyric for a fifteen minute track). A Lichtenstein painting?

  • I think something with “Fake Niger Documents” is good, beat the story back to the beginning, remind people that this is what it was all about.

  • After reading all the lame denials from Rove’s lawyer, I’m thinking about Rovergate, as in This dog won’t hunt.

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