Third Party & Independents: Archives

Some editorializing — I’ve been generally contemptuous of those who wish to impeach Bush for this or that. However, should it be shown that any senior members of the administration were responsible for this, I’ll demand impeachment for this stunt. This is beyond unacceptable. This is simply criminal.

So what you’re saying is that Bush should be impeached if members of his administration acted inappropriately.

I don’t think there is any question that if anyone in the administration did this, then they should suffer the consequences.

Talk of impeachment seems a little premature… but hell… many believe he should be impeached already, so I’m not sure why I’m even bothering.

Sounds like a red herring to me. I find it difficult to believe that Ashcroft would investigate anything to the point of injuring the image of the Bush administration.

CJ: I’m not on the prosecute Bush NOW train of thought at the moment. I was just so outraged at reading this at the time that should they discover that some of the senior administration officials were responsible for this act (note the “should they”), I would support criminal prosecution. Maybe this is not different than any of the allegations of deception that are thrown around here, but to me, if this did happen, it is a very concrete example of something that can be proven rather than differing (and politically oriented) interpretations of the administrations actions.

This also makes me wonder how high of an official must be before the president is also held responsible for the subordinate’s actions. If this was the action of an insignificant staffer, then I don’t know how responsible the president was. If this was the action of Karl Rove, then I’m not so sure. I’m just thinking aloud, but how high in the administration must one be to have clearance to access to who is and is not a covert agent overseas? If the answer is “not very high”, then how is this classified data being used in such a frivolous manner? Maybe it’s just me, but this incident stinks much more than any of the previous ones.

DRR: I don’t know about Ashcroft. I personally despise the man and have a hard time thinking he would hurt the man who rescued him after he lost to a dead man in his home Senate state. However, I think that such behavior is not acceptable to anyone within the executive branch. If the administration is going to blow the cover of a CIA agent because a relative was critical its policy, why should an undercover FBI agent think that they won’t blow his cover if his wife speaks out? I just think that we’ve crossed a dangerous line here. I cannot imagine that anyone’s happy about this — Democrats or Republicans.

Sounds like a job for an Independent Counsel to me…

Ken Starr to the rescue.

Karl Rove in Gitmo wearing an orange jumpsuit. There’s no spinning out of this, Ashcroft won’t get the investigation, he’s too close and politically vulnerable himself.