Moving on

When asked about the morality of his most senior advisors leaking the name of a covert CIA agent, President AWOL said:

“I haven't spent a lot of time talking about the testimony that people throughout my administration were forced to give as a result of the special prosecutor. I didn't ask them during the time and I haven't asked them since.”

Those poor men! Forced to give testimony in a legal proceeding! To this criminal mind, the law is not an obligation or a responsibility, it’s something you’re forced into, and presumably will do everything possible to avoid. Then again, if he’s the one wielding the force, there is no limit to its application—kidnapping, torture, and murder are all OK.

Notice also the peculiar attitude towards an investigation within the highest reaches of his own gang. He asks no questions. Has no curiosity whatsoever. If the leak had been something he considered damaging, do you think he wouldn’t tear down the house looking for the traitor?

The decider continues:

“I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person, and I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, I did it. Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But it's been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course and now we're going to move on.”

Perhaps? After everything that’s been revealed in court, under oath, our little commander guy still thinks there’s a chance that the leak didn’t happen. The “somebody” who “perhaps” disclosed the name of “that person” was actually a whole team of somebodies, headed by the Vice President and including Libby, Rove, and others, and this has been established without doubt in a court of law.

Then the whiner-in-chief talks about “endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent…” as if this was just some annoying waste of time and money with no effect on our security and integrity. No acknowledgment that leaking a covert CIA agent’s name is a bad thing, or that this agent was working on the highly sensitive matter of WMDs in Iran.

And I ask again a question that should be asked by every journalist confronted with a rightist making excuses for all this: If this were a Democratic president, and one of his or her top aides had leaked the name of a CIA agent in order to punish a conservative critic of his policies, would you be defending that action today? We all know the answer to that question, and it proves that principles have come to mean absolutely nothing to Republicans. They consider themselves above the law, while anyone else is fair game. In fact, if there’s been one thing most characteristic of Bush and Cheney, it’s the conviction that they should never be made accountable for anything, and that no law applies to them. They are a lawless, rogue regime, and therefore illegitimate, but this is the truth that the elites and the pundits and the dummy news networks can never admit even for a second, because the truth is too disturbing. Better that we continue being lulled to sleep with the notion that this is all just politics, a Washington-style spectacle with “the President” as chief celebrity.

And the White House press corps is powerless to do anything except take notes while this man lies again and again to their faces. Then they file their reports and pompous-sounding anchors relate the story as if it were just the most normal thing in the world for a self-styled apostle of democracy to give the finger to the rule of law on national TV. And if it’s Fox, there’s a little banner underneath saying: President stands strong.

“It’s run its course and now we’re going to move on.” Yes, sir, a commutation of sentence is one way of letting the law “run its course.” A much shorter and more convenient way, if you’re a crook.

Now stop gawking, folks. Move along. Nothing more to see here. We’re going forward now, leaving this unfortunate minor episode behind us. Pay no attention to the Dick behind the curtain. I am the great and powerful Liar-in-Chief.