October 27, 2005

Whack Job

The sedans pulled up in rapid succession as dusk settled over Washington last evening. Men in winter coats exited back seats and walked briskly, heads down, into the building to an emergency meeting of party Capos. Permission was needed to dispose of a member who had become a liability.

The case for whacking the problem member was heard. Sober heads around the room nodded agreement. A contract was approved.

By sun up Harriet Miers was history.

Karl Rove may have more to worry about from his boss than prosecutor Fitzgerald. Even the most loyal members of this gang are expendable when they become a liability. One of the gangs' former bosses, Richard Nixon, had his two closest aides whacked in what proved a futile effort to save his own skin when investigators began closing in on him.

Already we are seeing evidence that Bush may be getting ready to whack his own loyal aide, Karl "Turd Bloosom" Rove . They have already brought in sub-capo, Ed Gillespie to fill the hole. Eddy is already giving interviews while Karl is no where to be seen. Bad sign.

Over at Cheney's crib his right hand man, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was seen yesterday hobbling around on crutches. No he wasn't knee-capped – at least not yet. He was playing the sympathy card, trying to look too pathetic to indict -- or whacked.

These are dangerous days. It's housecleaning time within the inner circles of the Bush operation. It's the natural cycle for such organizations. Ranking members become radioactive after years of doing the boss's bidding and must be jettisoned. Those that can be trusted to keep their mouths shut are allowed to retire to lucrative, no-work, positions on corporate boards. Those they suspect might run off at the mouth are whacked; discredited, smeared, banished.

Fresh blood is moved up to fill the vacant positions. But, while eager to please the boss, these newcomers are green. They lack the years of street-smarts possessed by the dearly departed they replace -- which makes all that eagerness new disasters just waiting to happen.

Meanwhile the boss, who does not trust new faces, has to figure out how he can keep the lid on the past while also staying in business. With Karl all George had to say when he needed a job done was, "You know what to do, Karl." With a new guy Bush would have no idea what he might think he meant. He might think he means, "Ed, you know what to do -- do the right thing."

Anyway, as of this this morning it's one problem gone, two to go -- Karl and Scooter. If I were either man I'd hire someone to start my car every morning for the next week or so.

Meanwhile Patrick "Elliot Ness" Fitzgerald, may have discovered another of the gang's operations over in Niger. A curious fellow by nature, Fitz could not have investigated Ambassador Joe Wilson's fact-finding trip to Niger without noticing the "facts" he was sent to find out about. To wit – those phony documents that supposedly proved that Iraq had been seeking uranium yellow cake from Niger. (Document images and translations, here)

Those documents proved to be forgeries. That we know. What we don't know is forged by who? It sure as hell wasn't a CIA job, since the CIA never believed the Niger tale from the get-go. But Cheney sure did, or at least said he did.

So the question remains hanging out there -- who planted those phony documents -- and just in time for Bush to hawk them in a pre-war State of the Union message?

Until we find out the answer to that question the CIA leak investigation will not be complete. (More)

"This, we know now, was all based on fabricated documents. But it’s not clear yet ... who fabricated the documents. -- The documents were fabricated by supporters of the policy in the United States. The policy being that you had to invade Iraq in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein, and you had to do it soon to avoid the catastrophe that would be produced by Saddam Hussein’s use of alleged weapons of mass destruction. (Full Story)

Recent rumblings from Fitzgerald watchers is that he wants to know more about how the documents showed up when they did, why and who made that happen. Fitz has proven himself to be a man who -- one way or another -- gets what he wants. If he is allowed to pursue the origins of the phony Niger documents they may join the Nixon's tapes as evidence that leads directly to the Oval Office.

Therefore, as it turned out for Boss Nixon, Bush's housecleaning may turn out to be too little, too late.