{"id":231,"date":"2007-01-24T06:30:51","date_gmt":"2007-01-24T11:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=231"},"modified":"2007-01-24T08:07:26","modified_gmt":"2007-01-24T13:07:26","slug":"the-incompetence-of-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"The Incompetence of Others"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have been content to leave mos<\/title>I have been content to leave most of the discussion of the “Plame\/Libby” case to others, especially <em>National Journal<\/em> reporter Murray Waas–especially via <a href=\"http:\/\/whateveralready.blogspot.com\/\">his blog<\/a>–and to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.needlenose.com\/node\/view\/3303\">Swopa over at Needlenose<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 For background, check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Plame_affair\">Wikipedia entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Until the opening day of the trial, the Libby case looked set to be an occasion for critics to celebrate the fact that at least <em>one <\/em>leading administration official was going to be held accountable for <em>something<\/em> related to the war in Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, is on trial for perjury.<\/p>\n<p>Now, however, it looks like the trial may shed some light on one major axis of Bush administration factional politics–what <a href=\"http:\/\/whateveralready.blogspot.com\/2007\/01\/most-significant-disclosure-from-libby.html\"> Waas calls<\/a> “an inherent division… between the OVP [Office of the Vice President] and the White House staff.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how Michael Isikoff of <em>Newsweek<\/em> is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/16778317\/site\/newsweek\/page\/2\/displaymode\/1098\/\"> reporting the opening of the trial<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">Libby, it was widely thought by legal experts, was \tgoing to be the good soldier. He would play it safe at his trial in order to \tpreserve his options; mainly, if convicted, to seek a presidential pardon \tbefore Bush leaves office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">But no sooner did he start his opening statement \tTuesday morning than <strong>defense lawyer Ted Wells shocked the courtroom and \tall but tossed the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pardon strategy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d out the window<\/strong>. Seeking to rebut \tFitzgerald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contention that Libby had lied about his knowledge of Plame\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \tCIA employment in order to save his job with Cheney, Wells shot back: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. \tLibby was not concerned about losing his job in the Bush administration. He \twas concerned about being set up, he was concerned about being made the \tscapegoat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d…<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">[The trial] has raised the prospect that the Libby \ttrial will now turn into a horror show for the White House, forcing current \tand former top aides to testify against each other and <strong>revealing an \tadministration that has been in turmoil over the Iraq war for more than \tthree years<\/strong>…<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">Wells contended, it was Rove\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe political \tstrategist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwho had to be protected at all costs. He was, Wells said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the \tlifeblood of the Republican Party\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the man George W. Bush absolutely \tneeded for the coming re-election campaign. Indeed, after [then-press \tsecretary Scott] McClellan issued a public statement exonerating Rove of any \tinvolvement in the leak (a statement that turned out three years later to be \tfalse), Cheney and Libby huddled about the matter. McClellan had cleared \tRove but at that point had said nothing about Libby, leaving the implication \tthat Libby had leaked but Rove hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. <strong>Cheney personally wrote a note, an \texcerpt of which Wells read to the jury and highlighted by displaying on an \taudio-visual machine during his opening statement: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not going to protect one \tstaffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat \tgrinder because of the incompetence of others,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cheney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s note read<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">The translation, according to Wells: The vice \tpresident was not going to allow Karl Rove to be protected and Libby to be \tsacrificed…<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">The opening statements underscored what many had \talready suspected: that Cheney\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwho is slated to be called to testify by the \tdefense\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwill be a crucial witness in the trial…<\/p>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">Let the shooting begin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"textBodyBlack\">Cheney does not appear likely to hang Libby out to dry.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is a part of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,243632,00.html\"> the transcript<\/a> of a recent Cheney interview with Fox News.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>WALLACE: Your former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, goes on trial this \tcoming week on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury…<\/p>\n<p>CHENEY: He’s a friend. He’s a good man. He is one of the finest \tindividuals I’ve ever known…<\/p>\n<p>WALLACE: Is he honest?<br \/>\nCHENEY: I believe he’s one of the more honest men I know. He’s a good man. \tAnd I obviously appreciate very much his service on my staff over the years \tand have very high regard for him and his family…<\/p>\n<p>WALLACE: Given the fact that it now turns out that Libby wasn’t the one \twho first leaked the name of Valerie Plame, what do you think of the fact \tthat he’s the only one who’s being prosecuted in this case?<\/p>\n<p>CHENEY: I have strong views on the subject, but I’m not going to talk \tabout it…<\/p>\n<p>WALLACE: But there’s nothing that you have heard, nothing that you have \tread that shakes your confidence in Scooter Libby’s integrity?<\/p>\n<p>CHENEY: That’s correct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That would seem to raise the specter of an open-air split between Cheney and the White House.<\/p>\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=220\">have suggested <\/a> that there are probably several <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=123\">layers<\/a> of <em> substantive, policy<\/em> elements to this split, as well.<\/p>\n<p>The Libby trial may illuminate a split between <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=146\">Cheney and Rove<\/a> in ways that help make some sense of <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=169\">the rhythm of Bush administration foreign policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Among other things, my sense is that the “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=222\">muddle-with-a-surge-on-top<\/a>” that emerged from the White House “Iraq Policy Review” reflected an unwillingness or <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=219\">inability<\/a> to reconcile the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=215\">James Baker approach to Iraq and the Cheney faction<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But most of all, I wonder what it might mean for the White House to try to marginalize a sitting Vice President who <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=141\">does not serve at the pleasure of the President<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the Ford administration, Rumsfeld reportedly nudged Nelson Rockefeller off the 1976 re-election ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 But that hardly serves as a precedent for the current situation.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody is arguing that the Constitution guarantees the Vice President a spot on the next political ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 It does, however, guarantee the Vice President formal autonomy as an <em>elected<\/em> official.<\/p>\n<p>I do not think Cheney will actually move into the “opposition.”\u00c2\u00a0 This would be untenable for the White House.\u00c2\u00a0 At the level of factional politics, Cheney may ultimately have his way–in Iraq and <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=230\">elsewhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been content to leave mosI have been content to leave most of the discussion of the “Plame\/Libby” case to others, especially National Journal reporter Murray Waas–especially via his blog–and to Swopa over at Needlenose.\u00c2\u00a0 For background, check out the Wikipedia entry. Until the opening day of the trial, the Libby case looked set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}