Special report: Bush faces his Watergate

[onehandle]

Sleaze, leaks and an indictment add up to the worst presidential crisis since Nixon. And it will get worse. The White House has lost one key man but the whole chain of command may be engulfed by a scandal slowly revealing the lies that led to war.

Presidential second terms are prone to scandals, from Bill Clinton's embarrassments over Monica Lewinsky to Ronald Reagan's implication in the Iran-Contra imbroglio. But the troubles now circling George Bush's White House could be even worse than Watergate.

It might not appear that way at first. Mr Bush is unlikely to have to join Richard Nixon, the only president in US history forced to resign from office. But the issues raised by "Plamegate" - the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent - are far more significant than those involved in the "second-rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee's offices in Washington's Watergate complex in the 1970s. They go to the heart of why America, and its faithful ally, Britain, went to war in Iraq.

snip...

If, on Thursday night, Mr Rove needed a reminder of the potential perils ahead for him and his boss, he would have needed to do nothing more than look out of the White House windows before he left for home. On the pavement outside were demonstrators holding a vigil and calling for US troops in Iraq to be called home. Among the demonstrators was Cindy Sheehan, the mother whose soldier son was killed in Iraq and who this summer became a focus for the anti-war movement when she demonstrated outside of Mr Bush's Texas ranch.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article323311.ece

[meganmonkey]

1. Good read.

I need to email this to some folks who don't grasp what this is really about. This article provides a good rundown.

Rec'd.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I liked Cindy's statement

about Libby being merely an attack dog serving higher masters.

[sandnsea]

3. Bush has known for TWO YEARS

Why has he gone about the country claiming he didn't know who the leakers were, when the leakers were his Vice President and two key advisors. What did BUSH know and when did HE know it and why didn't HE hold anybody accountable.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=1428

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

4. Thanks for posting that. It's a reminder that the lies behind...

... this war have consequences outside the U.S.A. and the Middle East. Let's not forget that many of the countries in the "coalition of the coerced" still have governments that went along with this charade. Those governments should be worried about these developments.

Yes, I'm looking at you: United Kingdom, Italy, etc. (and not forgetting Poland).

[DemoTex]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Bu$h's problems are a whole lot broader and deeper than most of the mainstream US media will admit. What are they afraid of? Toothless Karl?

[emald]

6. the whole cabal

needs to be in prison. Presidential crisis? We don't got no president. maybe, at the most, we have a resident. but no way we got us a president. Our whole country is in crisis with this butt hole running things. Grand Old Party. What a bunch of sleaze.
SUPPORT THE TROOPS; BRING THEM HOME NOW. AND PUT THEIR COMMANDER IN THEIF IN PRISON where the little buthead belongs.

[tulsakatz]

7. excellent article!!! Thanks! n/t

[Carolab]

8. Kick.