In light of the growing chorus of whining as more and more of the Bush Circle of Jerks get trapped by their own hubris, I decided to revisit the treatment of the Clinton Administration friends and associates during the Whitewater "Investigation". So this weekend I checked out a copy of THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT, The Ten Year Campaign To Destroy Bill Clinton. The documentary is based on the book by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason. It is available from any Movie Store or library. Check it out. Watch it. For me, it really put in relief the irony of the current Republican outrage at the relatively tame efforts of a state prosecutor and the federal special counsel in the Plame affair when compared with the outrageous behavior of the Clinton-haters ten years ago.
Justice DeLayed.
Tom DeLay's lawyer Dick DeGuerin tried to serve Texas Prosecutor Ronnie Earle with a subpoena today. The subpoena was not signed by a court...it was a "toy subpoena" ginned up by DeLay's mouthpieces for the publicity value. DeGuerin wants Earle to answer 12 questions about conversations he had with grand jurors, including whether the prosecutor became angry when a grand jury decided against an indictment of DeLay and why that decision was not publicly released.
Earle, leading a Texas campaign finance investigation that indicted DeLay and two political associates, went to three grand juries. He presented evidence on DeLay's alleged role in funneling corporate money to Texas legislative candidates in violation of state law.
The first grand jury indicted DeLay on conspiracy charges, the second failed to indict and the third indicted him on an allegation of money laundering. DeLay has said he is innocent of wrongdoing. DeLay has accused Earle -- a Democrat -- of pursuing the case against him for political reasons. Earle has denied any political motives.
In a motion filed last week, the defense team said that from Sept. 29 through Oct. 3, Earle and his staff "unlawfully participated in grand jury deliberations and attempted to browbeat and coerce" the grand jury that refused to indict DeLay.
The motion said Earle then attempted to cover up and delay public disclosure of the refusal, and also "incited" the foreman of the first grand jury to violate grand jury secrecy by talking publicly about the case -- in an effort to influence grand jurors still sitting.
That Grand Jury foremen referenced by DeLay's attorneys told the media today that the allegation of influencing and tampering with the Jury was a "...bunch of Bullshit..."
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/10/12/build/nation/92-delay.inc
Nevertheless, DeLay's lawyers have generated enough fodder for the dittoheads on Yakkk Radio to wax indignant. O the weeping...O the wailing...O the gnashing of teeth as the well-oiled machinery of the Right-Wing media spin the situation to make DeLay actually appear to be the victim.
IRONY. The irony here can be summed up in two words: KEN STARR. Remember him? The Right-Wing attack machine funded by Richard Mellon Scaife and Uncle Sam funded a $50 Million attempted Coup d'Etat to overthrow the presidency of Bill Clinton. They left in their wake dozens of damaged lives, including one person who spent two years in prison because she refused to go along with a fabrication created by Starr and his crowd.
The outrageous behavior of Ken Starr has never been fully acknowledged by the crowd that now fulminates over poor Tom DeLay. Many of them were in political office at the time, including Sugarland's favorite pest control magnate, Tom DeLay.
Scooter Putz
...Meanwhile the Right-Wing whine-line on Scooter's release of confidentiality to Judith Miller is that it was "coerced". What did Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney in Chicago appointed by then-Attorney-General Ashcroft as special counsel to investigate the leaking of a CIA agent's name by the White House do to "coerce" tough-guy Libby who, along with Rove, run the White House mafia?
Did he threaten to expose them to endless tax audits like Ken Starr did in his investigation? Did Fitzgerald threaten to ruin Scooter financially with multiple indictments on cut-and-paste evidence like Ken Starr did? Did Fitzgerald fabricate a story with the complicity of a dying man who was afraid to die in jail and then threaten to drag scooter in front of a Grand Jury if he didn't cooperate, like Ken Starr did?
Whatever did Fitzgerald do to poor Scooter Libby that has the bowels of Limbaugh stirring with category 5 fury? Fitzgerald said, in writing to Libby, that he would "appreciate" Libby restating his release of confidentiality to Miller and would consider it "cooperative".
That is VERY abusive...
Judy Martyr Miller
So Judy Miller spent three months is Jail for refusing to testify before Fitzgerald's Grand Jury because it would require her to 'reveal her sources'. Her three months in the slammer were fully managed by the New York Times who saw to it that she had what could only be considered luxury lock-up conditions. She had access to a cell phone, which she used to blab to anyone willing to listen to her. She had a constant stream of visitors and was accommodated in every way. Judy, for those of you who do not know, is the Bush Administration's resident propagandist embedded with the liberal flagship paper, the New York Times. Judy Miller was the conduit for getting the WMD lies of the Bush Administration in print. Judy's 'source' Ahmed Chalabi, funneled to her through Cheney's office, is now, like Judy Miller herself, discredited by the passage of events. Nevertheless, given Miller's preening before the cameras upon her release, one might think that Judy Martyr Miller still had credibility. One might think that Judy Martyr Miller had actually been punished, like Susan McDougal. When Susan McDougal was incarcerated she was put in maximum security and required to wear the same red prison uniform worn by women who were in prison for murder. Many the women in prison for murder are implicated in the death of their children. So Susan McDougal was lumped in with what other prisoner's called "Baby Killers" and she endured isolation and abuse while serving time for not testifying before a grand jury. At various times, she was spat on, urinated on, and she suffered other indignities. The New York Times didn't keep a watchful eye over Susan McDougal. In a very real sense, they and the rest of the media establishment helped to put her there.
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There is some Irony in hearing the Republicans howl about the treatment of their priviledged characters, is there not?
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