Room at the Top
”Scooter, c’mon in, I’ve got something I need ya t’do for me,” the Vice President sneered through his cruelly twisted lips, looking like nothing more than an evil-minded snapping turtle’s impression of Elvis Presley.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Vice President,” the aide responded smartly.

“Now, Scooter, m’boy, this come straight from W. himself, y’unnerstand? That Wilson guy, his wife’s a problem, tryin’ a run this country like some kinda Hillary, ya know? We need a little word in the ear of the press, somebody not too sympathetic an’ all, right?”

“I know just the guy, sir,” said the aide, also considering the NY Times lapdog who’d been so useful lately in her unquestioning support for the President’s new war.

And so it happened: Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA agent is a ham-handed attempt to smear her Ambassador husband because he’d dared dispute publicly the administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein had been buying “yellowcake” uranium from Niger. Why not? Most Americans – and not to mention many others in the upper echelons of government among the so-called Coalition of the Willing and their citizens – have bought every other story peddled by these crooks and liars. So if Libby wants to claim Cheney told him Bush told him to tell the world - but not openly, of course – specially selected top secret information, maybe we should believe him now, right? The problem is, since he was lying then, how can we be sure he isn’t lying now? Perjury means nothing to these people, why should any other legal principle? Nevertheless, except for the part about Bush authorizing anything, I’m inclined to believe Libby was given an order and carried it out.