Bush/Rove Character Assassination Squad Goes After Fitzgerald

No great prize comes without a great price.

Patrick Fitzgerald is feeling the sting of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune--being assigned an investigation into the outing of a CIA agent by the Bush/Cheney White House. The mainstream and right-wing media are engaging in a rather gratuitous attack on the merits of the case against Rove/Libby/Cheney et al., and the character of the investigator, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

The New York Times:

With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor....

On Sunday, Republicans appeared to be preparing to blunt the impact of any charges. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, speaking on the NBC news program "Meet the Press," compared the leak investigation with the case of Martha Stewart and her stock sale, "where they couldn't find a crime and they indict on something that she said about something that wasn't a crime."

Ms. Hutchison said she hoped "that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars."

Ms. Hutchison appears to be having a "senior moment." On February 12, 1999, she addressed the Senate during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton:

...the laws of our Country are applicable to us all, including the President, and they must be obeyed. The concept of equal justice under law and the importance of absolute truth in legal proceedings is the foundation of our justice system in the courts....Lying is a moral wrong. Perjury is a lie told under oath that is legally wrong....The President of the United States willfully, and with intent to deceive, gave false and misleading testimony under oath with respect to material matters that were pending before the Federal grand jury on August 17, 1998, as alleged in Article I presented to the Senate. I, therefore, vote `Guilty' on Article I of the Articles of Impeachment of the President in this Proceeding.

Uh-HUH.

Carl Limbacher on NewsMax.com:

"That [Valerie Plame worked as a covert CIA agent] wasn't news to me," National Review Online's Cliff May reported way back in Sept. 2003. "I had been told that [Plame was CIA] - but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of."

Also, NewsMax.com (they're having a conniption!):

The former deputy assistant attorney general who helped draft the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act blasted Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on Wednesday, saying he may be getting "creative with law" in order to justify questionable indictments.

The Conservative Voice:

Leaks said to have possibly come from Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s office will, ostensibly, focus on “lapses of memory” surrounding conversations that occurred over 2 ½ years ago. If so, the supposed leaked information would support the claim by some that this will end up being a Martha Stewart-type case. The original indictment for insider-trading against Ms. Stewart was dropped. Instead, prosecutors brought charges against her for “lying” about charges that were never brought.

NewsMax again(headline):

Patrick Fitzgerald Appointed by Longtime Crony

The New York Daily News:

"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things," one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

Whoa!!! Takes one to know one, eh?

Don't you just love it when they get desperate?