Impeachment against Cheney?

Since the definition of graft has been changed to political contributions by the supreme court it would be difficult.

Are you denying that the only reason there isn't is because the supreme court changed the definition of graft to political contributions.

The war on and occupation of Iraq.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over President Bush's eavesdropping program, a Senate committee learned Wednesday.

In a written account, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said Cheney warned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he would oppose the promotion of a department official who once threatened to resign over the program.

Gonzales eventually decided against trying to promote Patrick Philbin to principal deputy solicitor general, Comey said.

"I understood that someone at the White House communicated to Attorney General Gonzales that the vice president would oppose the appointment if the attorney general pursued the matter," Comey wrote. "The attorney general chose not to pursue it."

Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame until that line of investigation was cut off by the repeated lies from Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Libby was convicted in March of perjury and obstruction of justice. Fitzgerald filed a memo on Friday asking U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who will sentence Libby next week, to put him in prison for at least two and a half years.

Despite all the public interest in the case, Fitzgerald has repeatedly asserted that grand-jury secrecy rules prohibit him from being more forthcoming about either the course of his investigation or any findings beyond those he disclosed to make the case against Libby. But when his motives have been attacked during court proceedings, Fitzgerald has occasionally shown flashes of anger -- and has hinted that he and his investigative team suspected more malfeasance at higher levels of government than they were able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

In Friday's eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.

Libby's lies, Fitzgerald wrote, "made impossible an accurate evaluation of the role that Mr. Libby and those with whom he worked played in the disclosure of information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA employment and about the motivations for their actions."

It was established at trial that it was Cheney himself who first told Libby about Plame's identity as a CIA agent, in the course of complaining about criticisms of the administration's run-up to war leveled by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. And, as Fitzgerald notes: "The evidence at trial further established that when the investigation began, Mr. Libby kept the Vice President apprised of his shifting accounts of how he claimed to have learned about Ms. Wilson's CIA employment."

The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President." (My italics.)

Not clear on the concept yet? Fitzgerald adds: "To accept the argument that Mr. Libby's prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President." (My italics.)

Up until now, Fitzgerald's most singeing attack on Cheney came during closing arguments at the Libby trial in February. Libby's lawyers had complained that Fitzgerald was trying to put a "cloud" over Cheney without evidence to back it up -- and that set Fitzgerald off. As I wrote in my Feb. 21 column, the special counsel responded with fire: "There is a cloud over what the Vice President did that week. . . . He had those meetings. He sent Libby off to [meet then-New York Times reporter] Judith Miller at the St. Regis Hotel. At that meeting, the two-hour meeting, the defendant talked about the wife. We didn't put that cloud there. That cloud remains because the defendant has obstructed justice and lied about what happened. . . .

"That's not something that we put there. That cloud is something that we just can't pretend isn't there."

To those of us watching the investigation and trial unfold, Cheney's presence behind the scenes has emerged in glimpses and hints. (The defense's decision not to call Cheney to the stand remains a massive bummer.) But I suspect that people looking back on this story will see it with greater clarity: As a blatant -- and thus far successful -- cover-up for the vice president

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.

The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

Cheney blocked official's promotion

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WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over ...

Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney

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Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame...

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

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A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress...

revel wrote:

Cheney blocked official's promotion

Quote:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over ...

Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney

Quote:

Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame...

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

Quote:

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress...

Of these three things, even if they were true, only the one related to Valerie Plame would be a crime. If it's true, he should be indicted in a court of law. Since he hasn't been, I assume it's just more rumor mongering.

Brandon9000 wrote:

revel wrote:

Cheney blocked official's promotion

Quote:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over ...

Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney

Quote:

Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame...

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

Quote:

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress...

Of these three things, even if they were true, only the one related to Valerie Plame would be a crime. If it's true, he should be indicted in a court of law. Since he hasn't been, I assume it's just more rumor mongering.

There is enough evidence to impeach Cheney and possibly kick him out of office even if there is still just a cloud of evidence in a court of law.

That's good enough for me. He deserves to be impeached. He is the one behind every single misdeed in the white house. I hope Waxman sticks to his guns and really puts the screws on him regardless of the fallout from it and even if it cost the democrats the Whitehouse. You may call it rumor mongering or what have you but Mr. Cheney is responsible for turning this country into a country that is unrecognizable and he should pay for it so that others will know when they get up there in a position to be in charge that they can't just do anything they want. We are not a monarchy despite Mr. Cheney's wishes and thoughts on the matter.

It remains to be seen whether he was involved.

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It remains to be seen whether he was involved.

Only because his underling successfully Obstructed Justice.

Cycloptichorn

"The latest filings make clear that the administration has been destroying documents and entering into secret agreements in violation of the law," said Anne Weismann, CREW's chief counsel.

Like the libby case, if there was an impeachment trial of Cheney it woud serve to bring all sorts of evidence into the light of day to have on record if nothing else. For me it would be well worth it.

You guys sound just like the whiners in the last presidency whining about Clinton and how evil and vile he was. Hope you can live with yourselves knowing that.

...The whole gang aught to be prosecuted and put behind bars for this and a hundred other things. However, in my judgment, Cheney has shown the most arrogant contempt for other branches of the government, the rule of law both in the United States and international law on all sorts of issues namely the torture issue...