NYT: Frank Rich's Column is Damning...

[Aviation Pro]

Dick Cheney is a political dead man walking according to the evidence now surfacing. Unfortunately a subscription is required to read Rich's treatise. Here's the link anyway: http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/opinion/04rich.html?pagewanted=print

And here's a teaser:

Why Dick Cheney Cracked Up
By FRANK RICH
IN the days since Dick Cheney lost it on CNN, our nation’s armchair shrinks have had a blast. The vice president who boasted of “enormous successes” in Iraq and barked “hogwash” at the congenitally mild Wolf Blitzer has been roundly judged delusional, pathologically dishonest or just plain nuts. But what else is new? We identified those diagnoses long ago. The more intriguing question is what ignited this particularly violent public flare-up.

The answer can be found in the timing of the CNN interview, which was conducted the day after the start of the perjury trial of Mr. Cheney’s former top aide, Scooter Libby. The vice president’s on-camera crackup reflected his understandable fear that a White House cover-up was crumbling. He knew that sworn testimony in a Washington courtroom would reveal still more sordid details about how the administration lied to take the country into war in Iraq. He knew that those revelations could cripple the White House’s current campaign to escalate that war and foment apocalyptic scenarios about Iran. Scariest of all, he knew that he might yet have to testify under oath himself.

Mr. Cheney, in other words, understands the danger this trial poses to the White House even as some of Washington remains oblivious. From the start, the capital has belittled the Joseph and Valerie Wilson affair as “a tempest in a teapot,” as David Broder of The Washington Post reiterated just five months ago. When “all of the facts come out in this case, it’s going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great,” Bob Woodward said in 2005. Or, as Robert Novak suggested in 2003 before he revealed Ms. Wilson’s identity as a C.I.A. officer in his column, “weapons of mass destruction or uranium from Niger” are “little elitist issues that don’t bother most of the people.” Those issues may not trouble Mr. Novak, but they do loom large to other people, especially those who sent their kids off to war over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and nonexistent uranium.

[NastyRiffraff]

1. Good. I hope he's soiling himself in fear.

Karma's a bitch, ain't it, Dick?

[Veronica.Franco]

21. Here's a link to entire Rich piece ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x261085

[otohara]

2. Broder's Snarky Quote

When “all of the facts come out in this case, it’s going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great"

I hate these people. They have too much influence over the sheeple.

[Poiuyt]

7. That was Woodward's snarky remark

[wiggs]

3. He has virtual immunity....through the pardon system. nt

[JDPriestly]

6. It depends. The Bushies are so smug and self-righteous.

They think they will get by with this no matter what.

What is more, immunity from criminal prosecution does not protect a wrongdoer from civil liability and damages. Cheney could be utterly humiliated by a civil trial. He and his co-conspirators could be forced to pay damages or settle with the Wilsons. A civil trial would be quite an ordeal for Cheney -- and who knows what kinds of personally embarrassing facts would emerge in depositions is such a trial. If you thought Clinton's roasting in the civil depositions he was subjected to was bad, imagine what an attorney could do to Cheney. His business dealings, her personal life -- everything would be pretty much up for grabs with the exception of events concerning national security. Maybe we could finally find out how drunk he was when he shot his hunting buddy.

Cheney, of course, is extraordinarily wealthy. Nevertheless, the Wilsons have been seriously injured (in terms of civil damages) by the conspiracy against her by Cheney, Libby, Rove, etc. How safe can the Wilsons feel when they travel outside the U.S.? Can they even feel safe inside the U.S.? Valerie Plame knows who did what with regard to nuclear proliferation. It only takes one country or one person who hates her and what she was doing or who fears what she knows about what they did in the past to pose a threat to her and to her entire family. So the repercussions of the outing of Valerie Plame don't just affect Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.

[WiseButAngrySara]

8. Excellent and encouraging points. ....n/t

[Olney Blue]

11. I am wondering if we will ever find out the extent of the damage done

to the U.S. by Valerie's outing. We know it destroyed Valerie's career, but I had not thought about the safety issue.
What a disaster for so many... and then the cost of this trial to U.S. taxpayers because of the cover-up in the WH for political reasons.
This is a Cheney-driven travesty.

[Hawkowl]

19. Wrongful death suits

I believe Cheney could be sued for wrongful deaths of the agents that died because he blew their cover.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Cheney knows that history

will condemn him from what he's done. He is afraid that the Libbly trial will be pushing that condemnation up a little bit in time.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. Frank Rich has a rare insight into people and writes about it so descriptively.

I highly recommend his book. it's marvelous.

[renate]

17. ditto that

It's extremely good. Stuff that'll make your jaw drop, but he's such a great writer that, in a weird way, it's fun to read.

[WiseButAngrySara]

9. Cheney I hope your coronaries burst this time. KNR. ....n/t

[LonelyLRLiberal]

12. Nah, we need him to last long enough to be impeached and removed,

and even be convicted of treason, but not long enough for us to have to pay for his lodging and shelter in prison.

[WiseButAngrySara]

13. I know! I can't believe that I actually posted that. Not like me to

wish ill on others, but this entire BFEE has changed everything.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

14. He would not hesitate to wish us the same or worse fate.

He is worse than a cockroach.

[WiseButAngrySara]

16. He is directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of

thousands of human beings whom he regards as cockroaches ...human beings easily and justifiably slaughtered for his personal profit. The Tom DeLay of humans.

[diddlysquat]

10. More here:

http://cracksinthefacade.blogspot.com/2007/02/cracks-in-facade-hidden-rich.html

[Imagevision]

15. Hopefully the Libby trial will have exposed Bush for the war lies making Attacking Iran

before he leaves office an impossibility!!

[Hawkowl]

20. Most Important

I think this is the most important aspect of this whole trial. Making sure everyone understands that they lied their asses off to get us into a war in Iraq, and that they are lying again for another war against Iran. Fitzgerald could end up saving hundreds of thousands of lives by publicly and completely discrediting Bushco.

[alittlelark]

18. Impeach Cheney first

He is already (3 weeks into Dem control) Dirty as a $2 hookers book.


He is RIPE.


The rest of the (sane world) chessgame is contingent upon his loss.

[Fovea]

22. A humane solution to the Dick Cheney Problem

Please read my post here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x119114#122068

Dick is now, and has been for an unknown period, incapacitated.

[cosmicdot]

23. here's another link

http://wealthyfrenchman.blogspot.com/