Hang Karl Rove by the Neck Until Dead

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself ~ Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (b. 2/14/1968, position held 7/15/2003 to 5/10/2006) describing his participation in the stonewalling of the press in the Valerie Plame investigation, as laid out in his book "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" (published 6/2/2008).

An Excerpt from the Thom Hartmann Radio Program, 11/8/2010 (edited for brevity and clarity).

Thom Hartmann: [My wife] and I, over the weekend, went to see the movie Fair Game [the film adaptation of the memoir "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House" by Valerie Plame-Wilson starring Naomi Watts & Sean Penn]. ...There's a scene in the movie where Joe Wilson gets a phone call, and the voice on the other end says, "hey Joe, it's Chris Matthews. Karl Rove just called me and said said that your wife is fair game". It's the story of [the outing of former CIA undercover operative] Valerie Plame. I walked out of that movie going, "Karl Rove needs to be tried for treason and hung by the neck til dead". I mean, that's how I was feeling. I'm not calling for that ... I'm an opponent of the death penalty, but boy was I furious.

[The movie] just lays right out how Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Scooter Libby committed treason... TREASON against the United States of America. And George W. bush's complicity in that lead to the death of hundreds of thousands of people and the destruction of our reputation around the world. The crime that was committed by these people is almost inconceivable. And the fact that they got away with it, and that [the Obama] administration isn't investigating and prosecuting them? I find amazing. Worse than amazed, I'm horrified.

My Commentary: I'm also an opponent of the death penalty, but I think, that in some cases, we should make exceptions. If any of the bush criminals are ever convicted, a future Republican president certainly could pardon them. That being the case, I believe, that if any of the treasonous bushies are ever convicted, that we should hang them all. Or give them a lethal injection, or death by firing squad - whatever they prefer. Remember that Scooter Libby, who was actually convicted, served no time in jail.

As for President Doofus, even though Scott McClellan implicated him in the Valerie Plame outing, I think it would might be easier to convict him for approving torture, a war crime bush admitted to in his just released presidential memoir, "Decision points". This is probably why we'll never get an investigation - this president committed so many crimes while in office that if there ever were a serious investigation his guilt would become apparent fairly quickly. And something, other than a pardoning would be demanded by the American people.

The precedent was set when Richard Nixon was pardoned, and now it has been confirmed by the Obama Administration. The United States does not hold presidents (or their administrations) accountable for the crimes they commit in office. It is American exceptionalism that allows the United States this privilege, however. Presidents of other countries (like president of Serbia and Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević, or president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, for instance) should still be worried about being held accountable for their crimes.

See also: People Died - No Justice for Plame-Wilson, the People Imperiled by Sue4theBillofRights, The Daily Kos 6/24/2009

      

SWTD #55