THE HATCHET DROPS: One Down, Three to Go

With the five-count indictment of the vice president’s chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has initiated a process that will eventually take down White House counsel Karl Rove, vice president Dick Cheney, and the president himself.

Much has been made of the president’s alienation of his social conservative base with the failed nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Certainly, religious fundamentalists played a pivotal role in making George W. Bush president but the core of his constituency is and always has been the potentates of oil and the barons of Wall Street.

Perhaps the most telling fact on the day that Scooter fell was that the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted the largest single day gain in six months. Say what you will about a modest gain in highly manipulable economic indices, if Wall Street was vested in the president’s leadership, the market would have moved decidedly lower. The gain was posted the day after a precipitous decline on the news of big oil’s egregious profiteering on the dual catastrophes of Rita and Katrina. Clearly, even the oil industry can no longer count on their man in the oval office protecting them from repercussions. In any other democratic nation, profiteering on catastrophe would be grounds for nationalization.

What is important here is that all the president’s traditional support groups – mega corporations, business owners, church goers, neoconservative think tanks and military personnel – are showing serious signs of leakage. All are arriving at the same conclusion: an inept chief executive does them more harm than good.

The spin machine is working overtime on damage control. Consumers of rightwing radio and Fox News were led to believe that the White House won a great victory on the day of the indictment. In the game of expectations, the president lost only one of his hatchet men and certainly not the most prominent among them.

If the investigation were to stop with the prosecution of Scooter Libby, it would an astonishing disappointment. Justice would be served only to the hem of the lady’s garment.

It will not happen.

It defies common sense to think that the all-out assault on the integrity of Joseph Wilson was the pet project of Scooter Libby. The White House political attack machine modus operandi is a clearly coordinated and well-orchestrated operation. The choreographer is Karl Rove and Dick Cheney is the director.

It is inconceivable that Libby proceeded without close consultation and fully vetted authorization. When the excrement hit the fan and Valerie Plame became the most famous operative in CIA history, we can be sure the gang of three huddled with the president to share a good laugh at the product of their deeds.

They were at the top of their game and the height of their powers. They possessed a level of media control Dick Nixon only dreamed of possessing. They had an insider at the New York Times and a system for laundering White House propaganda into front-page news.

They were untouchable – or so, in their dizzy arrogance, they believed.

There are a number of questions that remain unanswered. Most prominently, how did they think they would get away with it? Libby was a high-powered attorney. He had to know that blowing the cover of a CIA agent (as in leaking any protected and sensitive information) would place him in legal jeopardy.

Having committed the crime, he had to know how difficult it is to prove in a court of law (it includes exposing the perpetrator’s internal state of mind). Why then did he lie repeatedly and go to such elaborate lengths to cover it up?

Answering the first question goes a long way toward answering the second. Libby and gang were confident of their impunity because they had several layers of protection. The first went down when Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself and turned the investigation over to independent prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

The gang of three was not alarmed. They had every reason to believe the special prosecutor would honor an unofficial journalistic shield. Rarely had any federal prosecutors – especially those in politically sensitive cases – demanded that journalists reveal their sources. When Fitzgerald not only defied that expectation but sent Times reporter Judy Miller to jail in order to compel her testimony, the Libby gang began to worry.

They were down to their third layer of protection: the endless circle of potential journalistic sources. This was Libby’s purview as a mediocre novelist. He concocted a story whereby some anonymous reporter revealed the name and CIA affiliation to Libby and Libby simply passed it on. If the story could not be shaken, Libby and gang were off the hook. If only one reporter held out, no charges could be filed. Unfortunately for the White House, Fitzgerald tracked down all of Libby’s journalist contacts and they folded, one by one. Enter Judy Miller who, by going to jail as journalism’s Jean D’Arc, delayed the investigation and allowed Scooter and company to hold out hope that Fitzgerald would allow the Grand Jury to expire. When it did not happen, not even Judy Miller was willing to perjure herself for her White House connections.

As it turned out, far from a first amendment martyr, Judy Miller, by prostituting the Times to the White House propaganda machine, has done more to set back journalistic shield laws than any reporter in history.

For Cheney, Rove and Bush, it comes down to their last line of protection. It rests on the famed loyalty of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Will he take the sword and go down quietly? Has he been promised a presidential pardon? Unfortunately for the gang still standing, it is not entirely in Scooter’s hands.

What happens now?

Barring a plea bargain (which would signify the total capitulation of prosecutor Fitzgerald), there will be a trial and a stream of testimony and evidence that will painstakingly flesh out the story. Karl Rove and Dick Cheney will certainly be called before the magistrate. The president may be called to provide a deposition.

Each step in the process will expose the gang of three still standing to grave danger. Cheney and Rove will not outlast the proceedings. The president may.

The final chapter in this sordid affair will begin with the midterm elections. If the damage is sufficient to tip the balance of power in both houses of congress, the president will face impeachment.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH AND PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE.

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