Demagogue

Libby said Bush cleared leak

President George W. Bush authorized the leak to the media of classified material about Iraq, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney said according to court papers filed by prosecutors and made public on Thursday.

The aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, also testified that he was specifically directed by Cheney to speak to the media about the intelligence information and about Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had criticized Bush's Iraq policy, according to the papers.

Libby has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice after an investigation into the leaking to the media of the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent, which Wilson says was done to pay him back for his criticisms.

The court documents made public on Thursday emerged from that investigation.

As I see it this cuts one of several ways:

1) Bush has Supreme Presidential Power to declassify, so if he said it was OK then Libby really didn't do anything wrong;

2) From the Washington Post:

Libby's testimony also puts the president and the vice president in the awkward position of authorizing leaks -- a practice both men have long said they abhor, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations to hunt down leakers.

3) The Dems will start running nonstop commericals of Bush pledging that he'd fire any and all leakers;

AND/OR

4) Bush didn't learn anything from past administrations-- it's not just the crime, it's the lying and the coverup that makes you look guilty.

If Bush has to resort to a hairsplitting, legalistic defense–- that he secretly declassified selective classified documents before he authorized Libby to leak them to selective members of the press in the lead up to the Iraq war–- he's pretty well screwed.