Stephanopoulos: President Bush Directly Involved In Leak Scandal

"No one wants to get to the bottom of it more than the president of the United States," McClellan said.

Near the end of a round table discussion on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos dropped this bomb:

Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it’s a manageable one for the White House especially if we don’t know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions.

This would explain why Bush spent more than an hour answering questions from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It would also fundamentally change the dynamics of the scandal. President Bush could no longer claim he was merely a bystander who wants to “get to the bottom of it.” As Stephanopoulos notes, if Bush played a direct role it could make this scandal completely unmanageable.

The chances od Bush and Cheney being out of the the loop on Plamegate and smearing Joe Wilson is -zero...!
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/02/bush-directly-involved/

Kick this one around a bit...!

necessarily "Let's leak Wilson's wife's name." Of course, any involvement is bad for Bushco, but I think we have to hear more about that (not that I'm expecting them to tell the truth).

I would be happy to hear that Bush was directly involved...but I'm not jumping there because of George Steph's *one* sentence.

chances of smearing Joe Wilson without prior knowlrdge from Bush & Cheney is zero+

BUSH: "I want to know the truth," Bush told reporters in September 2003 after news of the investigation had burst into headlines. "If anybody has got any information, inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business."

In 2003, McClellan said it was "a ridiculous suggestion" that Rove was involved. "I've made it very clear, he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was," he said. He also said that any culprit in the White House should be fired "at a minimum."

I rest my case...!

How much more does it need to take to realize we've been duped by someone masquerading as the President of the US. --???...!

And more continue to die for a phoney war ....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bush should go the route of the nuremberg trials

Cheney absolutely had something to do with this, and I'm kind of more disputing the title of this thread rather than the George Steph quote.

Bush, I think they told him later. I think he kind of went "well, Dick, what should we do?" or "Good, that's what Wilson deserves."

He would be tangentially involved, I'd think. Which is still involvement, obviously. But based on one sentence I'm not getting all excited that anything will come of it. There are no transcripts, no tapes.

If Bush is involved, there will be a huge push to scapegoat someone (probably Cheney if it comes to that, he's ill anyway).

but that doesn't mean he's not a crook.

coverup that did them in. Just more food for thought.

I don't know that we have that here, unless they're the dumbest people on the planet.

saved no matter how they attempted to deny. Rove would never give them up, Scooter probably wouldn't either, but there may be other supporting players that want to save their hide. They may spill their guts enough to box them in. This admin might not have tapes, but they have email, which leaves itself even more open to interpretation of a grand jury. Add some personal knowledge to the email trail and it might just be enough to scare the shit out of them.

the knowledge and consent of their bosses.
but did they cover their tracks well enough to allow for (im)plausible deniability?

Plus, I was more addressing the title of the thread, that *Bush* was directly involved. I think much of his "presidency" happens around him or in spite of him, and I think Cheney is the guy on this. Obviously Bush knew, but he "knows" a lot of things.

Rove is known as "Bush's Brain". I think Bush can be spared.

President Hastert ... then the 2006 elections to straighten this this craziness resolved..! Impeach Bush & Cheney.

I'm hoping this investigation will lead to obstruction of justice charges against the White House. Yet another thing this case will have in common with Watergate.

... with already 60 comments:

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/10/stephanopoulous-bush-involved-in.html

I think even Stephanopoulous is wise enough to know what he did when he made this statement.

You know every neoconster cockroach on the planet is scurrying for cover ....

On a serious note, as if anyone here needs reminding -- if evidence exists that Bush and Cheney were discussing what was done to not just V Plame and J Wilson, but how to staunch any further exposure of the scale of the deception regarding WMD on that trip to Africa (or before), then we have a mega-Constitutional crisis emerging.


Peace.

I'm serious.

I mean, the Repuke controlled Congress will not impeach him--no matter how heinous a thing Bush has done.

What could happen to him really?

... act would contribute to the crisis.

If the Grand Jury acts with the same concern for National Security that we already witnessed Judge Tatel explicitly declare, in February of 2005 was the reason he did not 'write new law' to shield Cooper and Miller, then we face an unprecedented crisis:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4041542

This is going to be about SF312 and 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) & (g), at least:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4319705

And, some decent analysis of the applicability of IIPA is available here:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=11747

And, it's not as if Bush hasn't continued to commit crimes regarding his obligations under Executive Order 12958:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4130407

Bush, Cheney, the WHIGers, perhaps Bolton, and others (irrespective of what happens to Miller, Cooper and Novak) are potentially all participants in illegal actions regarding our National Security - they would then not only have broken the law(s), they would have violatd their oath of office.

I suggest that that would qualify as a mega-Constitutional crisis. I do not think that an exaggeration and it will only be compounded if Republicans and Democrats, alike, are incapable of purging their partisan and self-serving bias and begin doing their sworn duty.


Peace.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1495259/posts

They do not take kindly to bad news over there.

I figure that even if somebody has been on the site since day one and participated in numerous "Freeps" not to mention that gave thousands of dollars in the Freepathon but ends up being the first topost a thread on Bush and Cheney being unindicted co-conpirators next week, they'll still get the axe

But what did BushCo hope to gain by outing Plame other than revenge?

and thus coverup the fact that they had the Niger docments forged to provide a lie for war.

If his wife is an agent, does that mean what he says is false?

"His wife, who happens to be a CIA agent, recommended him for the trip to Niger. He knows nothing about this and nepotism in the CIA lead to his bogus report about the Niger documents."

They just did not consider the ramifications of their political hardball of trying to discredit the messenger. Discrediting the messenger is all these incompetent boobs know.

However, it is something very much up their alley.

That's all bushCo know how to do, discrediting, finger-pointing or playing the blame game.

they tried to silence Wilson with crys of cronyism. You just can't make this shit up.

I seem to remember a thread about Wilson getting too close to the truth of a SERIOUS drug cartel that perhaps involved some top level admins and was taken down for that.
Or is that just a dream?

then there's the fact that the bushees want to have plausible denial. either shows how disgusting and treacherous they are.

What would Daddy say ?

"Wouldn't be prudent, not at this juncture ..." :rofl: