Iraq-gate

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff for the Vice President of the United States, was indicted on the 28^th of October 2005 with charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the grand jury called to investigate the White House leak of an undercover CIA agent’s identity. Libby faces over thirty years of prison if convicted for these felonies.

The Iraq-gate parallels to Watergate are building. It was not the initial crime that Scooter was charged with, it was the cover up.

Chances are good that Mr. Libby will plea bargain his way out of most of the prison time by turning over related evidence on Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney. Rove will follow Libby’s lead and work a plea bargain that provides the corroborating evidence that will eventually force Mr. Cheney out of office.

We have only seen the tip of the iceberg of the corruption inside the Bush White House. We can only hope that all the folks in this administration who are responsible for lying to the nation in order to justify an unnecessary war will be brought down. More than 2000 Americans and over 30000 Iraqis have died because of these lies; it is only right and fair that the instigators of the worst crime ever directed from the White House should be held accountable.

President Clinton was impeached for lying about his extra-marital sex in the White House.  While Mr. Clinton’s actions were certainly indiscrete, he broke no laws, and no one died as a result of his lies. Mr. Bush and many in his administration systematically lied to the nation and the world to justify a war. Why this serious accusation of a White House conspiracy to mislead the nation has not been investigated is directly related to the Republican controlled Congress. Many of the same jaded Republican Congressional leaders that found Mr. Clinton’s minor actions so appalling and impeachable have looked the other way when it comes to Mr. Bush and his administration's many unscrupulous actions. It is time for Congress to do its job and begin the investigation into this serious breach of trust between the President and the American people.

In his first inauguration speech, President Bush promised an administration that would not only comply with the “ruling authority” but would be free of even the appearance of corruption. Recently he flip-flopped on this point, but when Mr. Bush was first asked about what he would do if it turned out there was a leak from with in the While House, he promised the nation that he would fire the folks responsible, whether they were convicted or not. Apparently this was just another in a long series of lies that he has told us over the years.