William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t, June 7, 2007
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes:
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
- Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I
There it was on the front page of Wednesday’s edition of the Washington Post, big as life and twice as ugly: “In the West Wing, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention.”
The gist: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby got clocked with a 30-month prison sentence after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame matter, and now squadrons of GOP die-hards are insisting that Bush pardon him before he goes to jail. On the surface, debate over whether or not to pardon Libby centers around how much more scandal and public disgrace this administration can endure. The Post story reports that several White House aides are deeply concerned that a Libby pardon risks “renewing questions about the truthfulness of the Bush administration.”
Perish the thought.
Beneath this simplistic surface, however, boils a cauldron of deeper and far more complicated troubles. Bush, Cheney, the administration as a whole, and the entire Republican Party face the simultaneous eruption of several potential catastrophes, which, if they were to coalesce into one gargantuan avalanche, could very well render all prior problems quaint by comparison.