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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Tag Archives | Plamegate

Remembering the Real George W. Bush on Veterans Day

By on 11 November 2010

It’s the advantage of a lesser mind that allows a man like George W. Bush to rewrite history and the legacy of his presidency through a glitzy, brilliantly designed book cover and ad campaign, which fog over the reality we left behind two years ago.

Unfortunately, because an irresponsible Republican leader has reentered the stage when his successor has plummeted from his pedestal makes people willing to invest in their gullibility to whitewash the economic and foreign policy recklessness that got us where we are today.

That it took Pres. Obama, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats to ignore investigating Mr. Bush’s potential crimes as president, including torture that he has now admitted he ordered, should not go without mentioning.

Our Soldiers are still paying for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s decisions, with Iraq droning on for another year at least, the leader of VoteVets, Jon Soltz, about to redeploy to Iraq, while tens of thousands of our Soldiers in Afghanistan fight and die daily to legitimize Pres. Karzai.

With all the talk about debt and austerity, even Pentagon cuts, still no one is daring to touch the $2 billion a week we spend in Afghanistan, or that our job in Iraq is done, but yet 50,000 troops remain.

On this stage George W. Bush parades making the case that he was Decision Guy and doesn’t regret that he took this country to war on a lie, but ensnared our nation in disgrace through torture Bush himself now admits he sanctioned. Ironic that he’s passing the buck to “the lawyers” who told him it was legal.

Our leaders don’t take responsibility for anything anymore. Whether it’s Pres. Bush or his successor they talk about responsibility, but never do anything more than defend themselves, as if leading the United States is about the ego of the Executive Branch occupant.

For leaders and those who sacrifice we have to look to the best of our Soldiers.

Former Pres. Bush even did his best to ruin our fighting force, because by breaking faith with our soldiers by advancing a war that should have never been fought, disgracing this country through Abu Ghraib, it’s difficult to inspire people to enlist, our standards having to be lowered because of Mr. Bush, a man who sullied his own service through unanswered questions.

But to relive the full extent of Pres. Bush’s earned mantle of the worst president in U.S. history you have to relive the story of Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson, two patriots who Bush and Cheney, Scooter Libby and Karl Rove, decided were expendable. Two true American patriots I have met and interviewed for whom respect is too small a word. For telling the truth Joe Wilson was hounded, his CIA wife cover blown and exposed, their lives upended and their family put in danger, all because Mr. Wilson dared to expose the facts.

On this Veterans Day, as Mr. Bush parades himself on TV, acting as if being the Decider in Chief when compared to the decisions he made is anything for which he should boast, we owe it to our Soldiers to remember the truth.

The leaders our Soldiers in the field have today don’t come close to measuring up to what’s deserved. There is no Harry S Truman, no John F. Kennedy.

Bush’s successor, Pres. Obama, has also broken faith with Soldiers, those gays and lesbians who serve, by refusing to move forward and honor all those who serve, with 70% saying repealing DADT is an idea whose time has come. This Veterans Day we find yet another president doing less for our Soldiers than they’ve earned.

How many more Soldiers will die for a lie in Iraq before we finally leave?

What is the mission in Afghanistan we are asking our Soldiers to accomplish?

There are no leaders to tell us.

Dedicated to my Uncle Dick who fought in WWII, my Marine brother Larry, who if John F. Kennedy had been George W. Bush would have ended up in Cuba, and to Jon Soltz, who is deploying to Iraq, as well as all the other women and men, straight and gay, Soldiers, who put their lives on the line every day. Hu-rah.

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Karl Rove’s Courage and Consequence: Less Memoir Than Hoax

By on 10 March 2010

I have the distinct pleasure to have interviewed Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, two people I consider American heroes. So, when Karl Rove’s memoir was published, I obviously was very interested in anything Joseph had to say about it. I’m pleased that he, once again, has allowed me to publish his writings on TM.com, which he has done many times before. Because of Joseph Wilson’s brave Niger op-ed, a torrent of truth landed on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, which resulted in an unholy hell being unleashed on many innocent patriots, including Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. Karl Rove is no longer admired as “Bush’s brain,” as his prediction of a permanent majority lies in the dust, but he does deserve to be remembered in history as the Republican operative in an Administration that lied to get us into war, with Valerie Plame being the pound of flesh Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and so many others chose was worth serving up as collateral damage amidst their arrogant plundering. It didn’t matter that Ms. Plame was a covert CIA operative working on sensitive material that could impact our national security. Valeria Plame was expendable; after all, she was only a woman. Karl Rove never had to answer for his un-American actions, and neither did Vice President Dick Cheney. Only history will tell the story if their getting away with it will come back to haunt us all.

GUEST POST BY JOSEPH C. WILSON
originally post at Huffington Post

karlrovebook

Karl Rove’s book Courage and Consequence is less memoir than hoax. The chapters that relate to the CIA leak scandal are yet another attempt to deflect attention from his central role in the betrayal of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity as a covert CIA officer.

His distortions and fabrications are consistent with his approach throughout this sordid and criminal affair. Wasting his opportunity to tell the truth, he offers absolutely nothing new, and his selective use of facts and quotes are a transparent effort to continue his long campaign to confuse people, unfortunately consistent with his past behavior.

His book is a pathetically weak defense of the disastrous policies pursued by the Bush administration, involving our country in a war of choice based on false intelligence and badly tarnishing the good name of the United States of America.

Nothing in Karl Rove’s book refutes those facts. His book, however, is illuminating in further exposing his political methods, especially his reliance on personal insults, not simply towards Valerie and myself, but also towards all those who opposed his unprincipled behavior.

If any additional proof to the irrefutable historical record were needed, Rove’s book demonstrates once again the actions of a vindictive, angry and petty man. Karl Rove betrayed his nation; now he has betrayed history.

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Robert Novak, CIA Identity Leaker Dies

By on 18 August 2009

The “Prince of Darkness” has died.

By the way, Novak reportedly “relished” his title. He certainly earned it.

More than anything, Robert Novak will be remembered as being representative of the Bush-Cheney years and the lengths people would go to in order to tar their political enemies. This was particularly true when it came to the Iraq war, which Mr. Novak opposed, though that didn’t keep him from outing a CIA operative, also putting many people in danger.

I’ve never been one for remembering people as they weren’t, which troubled some when I proved the point on former Pres. Gerald Ford’s passing. But if you prefer puff pieces, by all means read “Giant of Journalism.” Though my own perception is colored through the fact that I’ve interview Ms. Plame (as well as her husband Joe Wilson), and know, on at least a small level, what Mr. Novak’s wrecklessness wrought.

So, around here Mr. Novak will be known as the man who outed Valerie Plame for spite, in his 2003 newspaper column, which by the way was at the very least a felony.

From Conor Clarke over at Andrew Sullivan’s place:

Novak was, to be perfectly honest about it, the least pleasant person I’ve ever interviewed. He didn’t shake my hand upon entering or leaving his office, and expressed fairly open contempt when I asked him a question about the Valerie Plame affair. His response was: “You can’t imagine how tired I am of answering those questions.” And then he proceeded not to answer the question.

Novak will not be missed by those of us who thought his reprehensible actions in outing Ms. Plame, inspired by his ideological blindness, led to ruining years of work by Valerie Plame, but also the possible exposure of many people, as well as scuttling a very important program on which Plame was working, which was nothing less than a political hit job.

Whatever respect Mr. Novak earned over his lifetime as a Washington player and insider, long-time writer and television host of was obliterated by this, some would say, treasonous act. The contempt many of us feel for Mr. Novak today was earned.

On the human side, it is, however, heartening to hear about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s reach out to Novak at his darkest hour. Having lived through both parents suffering from cancer and watching unspeakable pain, I’m sure his family is grateful that a fellow sufferer shared and encouraged Mr. Novak to fight. Prayers offered to all.

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Rove Not Adjusting Well to Public Humiliation

By on 10 April 2009
Photobucket

Mr. Rove is having trouble post Bush. Looking at the Republicans, he has to be depressed. After eight years of Bush-Cheney the Republican party has collapsed, with a smaller portion of the electorate than can result in winning anything. But considering the incoming Bush and Cheney are also taking, including Cheney’s troubles if he decides to travel, with their policies also totally repudiated, the current unwinding of “Bush’s brain,” whose mission was anything but accomplished, is extraordinary by anyone’s standard.

Roves current name calling spree against Vice President Biden is one for the books. Of course, it happened on the Fox News channel:

“I hate to say this, but he’s a serial exaggerator,” Rove told FOX News. “If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop.”

It’s all about something Biden said about George W. Bush:

“I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office,” Biden began, “‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘I’m a leader.’ And I said: ‘Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.’”

Obviously, for Rove, who is now calling Biden a “blowhard” and a “liar,” it really can’t be just about what Biden says happened. Whether it did or not, well, I could care less, but it sure sounds like classic Biden. It also could happen in a flash.

As for Rove calling anyone a “liar,” well, that really takes some nerve, especially since Mr. Rove worked for Team Liars for all those years, including an episode that had President Bush and Mr. Cheney lying to the entire country about the case for WMDs, but also all matter of national security interests. I won’t even get into the Valerie Plame imbroglio, but if you want to turn to the U.S. attorney scandal, I’d say Mr. Rove would do well to refrain from calling anyone else a “liar.”

It’s that old consider the source issue.

I’d also say that the continual drama around Rove since leaving office is evidence that he’s having a very hard time adjusting to humiliation post Bush-Cheney. This exchange tells a fuller tale of Rove’s frustration, which is now spilling over into the public. Not good. But delicious for those who believe Mr. Rove has earned a little public discomfort.

graphic via Progressive Worldview

–comments are closed–

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Dick Cheney Ignores that 9/11 Happened on Their Watch

By on 15 March 2009

Mr. Cheney’s “stuff happens” economic glibness is getting a lot of attention today, but it’s not what caught my ear.

The man who brought us Ahmed Chalabi and Paul Wolfowitz, as well as “Curveball,” with Judy Miller’s greatest hits on WMD pushing the way at the NY Times, thinks Scooter Libby was left “hanging in the wind” by Bush, and that Scooter deserved a pardon. Having the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Plame and Mr. Wilson, the drivel from Mr. Cheney today is especially reprehensible. The lack of respect Dick Cheney has for independent intelligence professionals ends with Valeria Plame (and her colleagues) being dispensable. Never mind that later in the interview he lauds the intelligence community, but only when they validate the political agenda of Bush-Cheney. That tells you how we got into Iraq from the man who helped concoct the invasion. Accurate intelligence was never solicited or even required, but just got in their way. So when Joe Wilson outed the White House for manufacturing their primary avenue of proof against Saddam, it was nothing to Cheney that a career C.I.A. officer was burned in the process to send a message. Oh! But the hit man sent to do the dirty deed is worthy of a pass.

From there it was an easy jump to torture, illegal wiretapping, Justice department tampering, etc., etc., which resulted in America’s image and trust across the globe damaged in a way that will require Obama’s entire administration, especially Secretary Clinton, to begin from scratch to try and tape back together what Bush and Cheney destroyed.

However, the interview clincher came when John King asked Mr. Cheney if President Obama “has made Americans less safe.” The reply was blunt and short: “I do.” It’s Mr. Cheney’s evaluation of President Obama’s adherence to the U.S. Constitution that is so startling even today, as he applauds the illegalities that had George W. Bush circumventing the rule of law during his terms in office.

I urge you to read “Tales From Torture’s Dark World,” by Mark Danner, which appears today in the Times. It will prove why President Obama’s commitment to distancing the U.S. from their national security policies is one of the most important things he can do if we are to bring terrorists who target Americans to justice. You simply cannot do it without adhering to the rules and tenets of American justice.

[...] From everything we know, many or all of these men deserve to be tried and punished — to be “brought to justice,” as President Bush vowed they would be. The fact that judges, military or civilian, throw out cases of prisoners who have been tortured — and have already done so at Guantánamo — means it is highly unlikely that they will be brought to justice anytime soon.

For the men who have committed great crimes, this seems to mark perhaps the most important and consequential sense in which “torture doesn’t work.” The use of torture deprives the society whose laws have been so egregiously violated of the possibility of rendering justice. Torture destroys justice. Torture in effect relinquishes this sacred right in exchange for speculative benefits whose value is, at the least, much disputed. [...]

Mr. Cheney scoffs at the notion that “the rule of law” is important in fighting radical Islamic jihad. It’s obvious that his idea of justice, and those of his former boss George W. Bush, is a 21st lynch mob mentality. I remain stunned that Congress never did anything about it and that President Obama seems sanguine to “look forward” without reconciling what happened in the past, at least so far. This sort of moral cowardice and squeamishness about the importance of law inforcement is how we got here in the first place.

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HEROES: Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame

By on 06 March 2007
VIDEO of Keith and Wilson


The
National Review wasted no time squealing for a pardon for the vice president\’s convicted felon aide. It\’s what we all have suspected would be in the
air on this day. It\’s what should be expected from Scooter Libby, the man who
argued for a pardon for Mark Rich. Remember him? The guy who had wingnuts screaming
to high heaven back in the good old days of Bubba.

But in the mix today we are now getting the
visceral reaction of the wingnuts, finally coming out of their fantasy lives
to once again smear Joe Wilson. Not even a guilty verdict is enough to calm
the conservatives. They\’re still rehashing the trumped up Republican report
that crafted a case against Joe Wilson, which he long
ago rebutted in writing, including a
letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee. But Republicans being, well,
Republicans, don\’t let facts alter their fantasies. All the links
take you to where the truth is laid
out.

The truth is what infuriates the Republicans: Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame are heroes. But they have paid for their courage
and so has this country. Because let\’s remember, Ms. Plame was a WMD analyst
when the vice president\’s office targeted her husband, hoping to get a twofer and outing a classifed CIA operative in the process. The campaign
against the Wilson\’s was un-American and dangerous to our national security interests, but there\’s no reason to think it will
stop today. The country has paid through the disgraced presidency and vice presidency
of Bush and Cheney, as well as in the Iraq war, including the horrendous mismanagement
and mistreatment of our soldiers from front line to homeland.

As for Scooter Libby, a civil suit awaits. As for the vice president, he is
disgraced. Then there is Mr. Bush. He has the dubious honor of having the highest
aide ever convicted in an Administration since Iran-Contra. Finally, a Reagan
moment.

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Raw Story: It Begins with Wurmser and Condi’s Guy

By on 05 November 2005
Those close to the investigation
say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser,
then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office
of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter”
Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted
that it was a boondoggle, the sources said. Libby then shared the information
with Karl Rove, President Bush’s deputy chief of staff, the sources said. Wurmser
also passed on the same information about Wilson to then-Deputy
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and then-National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice, they added. Within a week, Wurmser, on
orders from “executives in the office of the vice president,” was
told to leak her name to a specific group of reporters in an effort to muzzle
her husband, Wilson, who had become a thorn in the side of the administration,
those close to the inquiry say. It is unclear who Wurmser had spoken with in
the media, the sources said, but they confirmed he did speak with reporters
at national media outlets about Plame.
Wurmser
Passed Plame’s Name to Libby & Condi’s Guy

Wurmser was the weasel.

The mangy critter that headed the “cell” inside the
CIA that Greg Thielman
talked about with such contempt. A group put together, with the help of the
vice president’s office (if not W.’s Dick himself), to “stovepipe”
intelligence straight up the chain of command, so that career intel analysts
like Thielman wouldn’t ruin the president’s preemption party.

So, to make a long leak story short, Joseph Wilson simply got in their way. And Bushies being the bullies and cowards they are, of course they couldn’t go directly after the man. They went after his wife.

Wurmser came out of John Bolton’s office, a man who now sits
as our ambassador to the U.N.

Wurmser evidently met with Ahmad Chalabi, Ms. Run Amok’s main
man, and the New York Times’ big source for suckering the country into believing
Bush had the goods on Saddam when the intelligence he was actually using was
akin to paper goulash. That the bogus intel everyone was getting was pushed
by a guy named “Curveball,” who was related to Chalabi, never seemed
to bother anyone.

Wurmser was also part of the containment
is crumbling crowd, which openly advocated regime change. However, the scariest
part of Wurmser is the idea of redrawing the region to better suit the neocons’ vision of a greater Middle Eastern heaven.

In an Administration devoted to
the notion of “Feith-based intelligence,” Wurmser was ideal. For years,
he’d been a shrill ideologue, part of the minority crusade during the 1990s
that was beating the drums for war against Iraq. Along with (Richard)
Perle and Feith, in 1996 Wurmser and his wife, Meyrav, wrote a provocative
strategy paper for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “A
Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” It called on Israel
to work with Jordan and Turkey to “contain, destabilize and roll back”
various states in the region, overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq, press Jordan
to restore a scion of the Hashemite dynasty to the Iraqi throne, and, above
all, launch military assaults against Lebanon and Syria as a “prelude to
a redrawing of the map of the Middle East which would threaten Syria’s territorial
integrity.” The
Lie Factory

It is this alliance that has brought the U.S. to the brink of
hell, which is to say, our international reputation in tatters, our clout merged
with a gaping credibility gap, and our president at the nadir of his presidency,
as top White House officials are under a threat of indictment. All because the
war the Administration chose to wage was predicated on paper threats concocted
out of raw intelligence, and a guy who was called a hero by W.’s dad got in the way.

This is not a simple defending the president’s policy strategy,
as the WSJ
hilariously tries to postulate today.

This was a concerted effort by the president and high level Bush administration officials
to hijack American foreign policy, which included the U.S. military and all other branches of government, as well as the American media at all levels, so they
could play a game of Republican Risk. Only this time it was for real.

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