{"id":11425,"date":"2007-07-12T14:45:19","date_gmt":"2007-07-12T18:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/11425.html"},"modified":"2007-07-12T14:45:19","modified_gmt":"2007-07-12T18:45:19","slug":"bush-speaks-libby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-speaks-libby\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush speaks — Libby"},"content":{"rendered":"

In part one<\/a> of the review of Bush’s press conference<\/a>, we talked about Iraq. Now let’s look at the only exchange from the hour-long event that didn’t deal with the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Q: You spoke very soberly and seriously in your statement about how you weighed different legal questions in coming to your decision on [the Scooter Libby] commutation. But one issue that you did not address was the issue of the morality of your most senior advisors leaking the name of a confidential intelligence operator. Now that the case is over — it’s not something you’ve ever spoken to — can you say whether you’re at all disappointed in the behavior of those senior advisors? And have you communicated that disappointment to them in any way?<\/p>\n

Bush: Michael, I — first of all, the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision. Secondly, I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about the testimony that people throughout my administration were forced to give as a result of the special prosecutor. I didn’t ask them during the time and I haven’t asked them since.<\/p>\n

I’m aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person, and I’ve often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, I did it. Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But it’s been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it’s run its course and now we’re going to move on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first substantive (I use the word loosely) comment from Bush on the scandal since Patrick Fitzgerald launched his investigation. Too bad, then, it was such a pathetic response.<\/p>\n

The question, from the WaPo’s Michael Abramowitz, was extremely good. It focused on the “morality<\/i>” of the ordeal — the White House outed a covert CIA operative in a time of war. The same White House said it didn’t “operate this way,” when it had. The same White House vowed to fire anyone involved with the scandal, when it didn’t and never had any intention to.<\/p>\n

The reporter characterized all of this in exactly the right way. Is Bush even the slightest bit “disappointed” in how his team conducted itself through this ugly ordeal? Is there even a hint of shame?<\/p>\n

Not even a little.
\n
\nAs Josh Marshall put it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

He couldn’t even manage a perfunctory statement of disappointment or regret. He managed to slip in a dig at Rich Armitage, a general statement that the whole thing had been very rough on the White House staff and that now “we’re” moving on.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the president was involved from day one. He was always in favor of doing it. And he basically said so again today. Truly a shameful man.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m tempted to do some additional fact-checking here — pointing out how the commutation was anything but “fair and balanced,” and explaining how his answer contradicts recent reports about Bush looking for flaws in the jury’s ruling — but let’s just skip it.<\/p>\n

Bush is a small man who has brought shame upon his office and embarrassment upon us all.<\/p>\n

He’s ready to “move on” from a scandal that still warrants an apology. The rest of us are ready to move on from a presidency that still defies explanation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part one of the review of Bush’s press conference, we talked about Iraq. Now let’s look at the only exchange from the hour-long event that didn’t deal with the Middle East. Q: You spoke very soberly and seriously in your statement about how you weighed different legal questions in coming to your decision on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}