The verdicts came in Tuesday in the trial of former Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby: Guilty on four of five counts.
In a perfect world, that would be enough to get Congress off its politically-shy butt and start impeachment proceedings against the corrupt administration of President George W. Bush.
Four guilty verdicts against Libby is more than enough to warrant impeachment. The trial stripped away the cloak of secrecy from the most duplicitous White House in modern times. If lying about a blow job from an intern provides sufficient grounds for impeachment of a previous President, how can lying about taking a nation to war, subverting the Constitution and outright obstruction of justice not justify removing Bush and his cabal from office by whatever legal means necessary?
At the very least, the Libby trial revealed how Vice President Dick Cheney orchestrated a coordinated White House effort to destroy the lives of former ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. It showcased the extraordinary lengths the administration would employ to protect its manufactured lies used to "justify" an illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq.
The trial exposed the White House as a venal, corrupt criminal enterprise where political expediency replaced truth and American lives would be sacrificed to protect personal agendas.
At the center of this criminal conspiracy sat Cheney and Karl Rove – Bush’s brain – the political guru with the President’s ear. Bill Clinton boinked Monica Lewinsky and went to trial before the Senate for saying he didn’t do the nasty. Richard Nixon did far more but his many crimes pale in significance to the corruption of the Bush administration. Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment and certain conviction.
Bush, however, remains in office, continuing to drive the nation towards disaster while the new Democratic leadership of Congress takes impeachment off the table and says we all just have to learn to get along.
Enough. The Libby trial documented – in excruciating and exacting detail – the many criminal activities of a White House out of control. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says his job is done. In his single-focus world, it is. He was appointed to nail someone in the CIA leak case and he did so. It doesn’t matter that Libby is a fall guy for the bigger fish. We needed a head on a platter and Libby’s fit nicely.
But the issue goes far beyond who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the media. It goes to the heart of a corrupt political administration that lied, covered and obstructed to protect the use of falsified intelligence to justify a pre-planned war that has, so far, cost more than 3,100 American lives along with thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilians.
When the shit hit the fan over release of Plame’s name, Bush promised the American people that "anyone connected with this affair would be gone" from the White House.
Time for Bush to deliver on that promise:
He should fire Karl Rove.
He should take the steps necessary to remove Vice President Dick Cheney from office.
And then he should resign as President.
It is past time to purge the White House of the cancers that infect the body politic.
If Bush had one shred of honor, one ounce of decency or even one micron of honesty, he would do so.
But he doesn’t. So we are left with hoping that someone else can step forward to take the necessary steps to remove his lying, criminal ass from an office he never deserved and dishonors by his very presence.
I know the chances for such are slim…too slim given the cowardice of Congress and a system designed to protect crooks like George W. Bush.
