"Republicans Testing Ways to Blunt Leak Charges "

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/politics/24leak.html?ex=1130731200&en=072f4f915779b0fb&ei=5009&partner=MSN_NYTHOME

Republicans Testing Ways to Blunt Leak Charges
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: October 24, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 - 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.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, is expected to announce by the end of the week whether he will seek indictments against White House officials in a decision that is likely to be a defining moment of President Bush's second term. The case has put many in the White House on edge.

Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., who is Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, have been advised that they are in serious legal jeopardy. Other officials could also face charges in connection with the disclosure of the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer in 2003.

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."

[wtmusic]

1. "Mr. Fitzgerald did not understand how Washington works"

"an inside-the-Beltway phenomenon of little interest to most voters"

"I think we just need to stick to our knitting on the topics and the subjects the American people care about"

"the White House has made tremendous long-term progress"

[AspenRose]

2. That Scottie picture is AWESOME! ROFL!!!

:rofl:

[ngGale]

3. How Washington works...

Other people sympathetic to Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have said that indicting them would amount to criminalizing politics and that Mr. Fitzgerald did not understand how Washington works.
***

Oh really, gee, that's right - :sarcasm:
'the rule of law' does not apply to them.

[dajoki]

4. they think it doesn't n/t