Corruption
abounds in nation’s capital
Ryan
Donohue
Wednesday,
Oct. 26, the federal grand jury met with
special council Patrick Fitzgerald about
the leak of covert CIA officer Valerie
Plame’s identity to reporters.
They adjourned the meeting without announcing
any indictments or requests for an extension
to the investigation.
No other meetings with the grand jury are scheduled. With only a few days left
before the investigation adjourns Oct. 28, the possibility of any indictments
in the investigation seems questionable.
Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Bush’s senior adviser and chief political
strategist, is believed to have leaked Plame’s name to reporter Matthew
Cooper of Time magazine. Rove has been an adviser for Bush since he was elected
governor of Texas.
Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a Bush administration
critic, wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times criticizing the administration.
Days later, Plame’s name was in an article criticizing Wilson, published
by Robert Novak, a syndicated columnist. Knowingly leaking the name of a covert
CIA agent is a felony.
Some of Rove’s other prominent clients besides Bush are former President
George H. W. Bush, John Ashcroft and Phil Gramm. His deep and longterm connections
to the administration and the involvement of other high ranking White House
officials like I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s
chief of staff makes one wonder how high in the administration this scandal
actually goes.
Even if there is not enough evidence to prosecute Rove or others in the administration
for leaking Plame’s name, there is still a possibility prosecutors can
go after various people involved, including Cheney, for perjury or obstruction
of justice and remove them from office.
But if Rove is eventually removed from the White House it is unlikely he will
serve any jail time. Rove’s removal probably would not remove his influence
in the administration.
This is not the first scandal the Bush administration has encountered. It has
a history of dodging political scandals: the bungled war in Iraq, failure to
find Osama Bin Laden, “Memo-gate,” Enron and Halliburton. But the
admini-stration’s Teflon coating appears to be fading with Bush’s
diminishing approval ratings. Still, he has bounced back from low approval
ratings before.
This scandal, which once looked like it could be the next Watergate, will probably
just be get lost in the pile of this administrations past scandals.
This column originally appeared in the News Record at the University of
Cincinnati.
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