1 Boring Old Man

There’s a lot of noise right now – Zarqawi’s death, Ann Coulter’s Book, the article in Vanity Fair about the Niger Forgeries, the Gay Marriage Ban Amendment, the yearlyKos, Robert Kennedy’s article in Rolling Stone about the 2004 election fraud. But under the din, it’s been all quiet on the Plamegate front – until today. In an article in The National Journal, Murray Waas, Plamologist extrordinaire, has expanded his reporting about Attorney General John Ashcroft and the early days of the investigation.

John Ashcroft’s appointment was one of the first indications that Bush was going to appoint a series of idealogogues to high places. Ashcroft entered government almost immediately out of law school, and ended up as Missouri’s Attorney General, Governer, and later Senator until he was defeated, ironically, by a dead man. His appointment to the Attorney General position was contentious, primarily because of his rigid religious fundamentalism.

The thrust of the new Wass article concerns Ashcroft’s persistent involvement with the C.I.A. leak case for months after it was known that the prime suspects were Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby who the F.B.I. suspected of lying, and after it was clear that Vice President Cheney was heavily involved. He was heavily involved with all three men, and Karl Rove had been his campaign adviser. That this failure to recuse himself was unethical is unquestioned. What one wonders is if he was a conduit from the investigation directly to the investigated figures in the White House. But mostly, what Murray Waas confirms is that Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and Karl Rove were doing exactly what we thought they were doing – outing Valerie Plame to undermine her husband and the C.I.A. with the full knowledge of what they were doing. Whether they are brought to justice or not, all of these "President’s Men" were behaving very badly, including John Ashcroft himself.

Ashcroft is now a lobbyist in Washington, working with the Homeland Security Agency [which he helped found] to get contracts for his clients. He is also on the faculty of Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson.