The Saturday Night Massacre II.

Presents? The Dems would be like innocent children, playing with the boxes and wrapping paper and ignoring or overlooking the goodies within. One thing Bush need not fear is the current Democrat Party taking full advantage of his screwups and mendacity.

Steve, to answer your question, NO. Out of site - out of mind and the cowardly dems will do nothing.

uh, no it would not be a good present. The crooks and liars need to go to jail. As for the Dems, given the ammunition they have in hand already, they *should* sweep. Of course, I said that a year ago also....

My understanding is that McNulty will not be in a position to sabotage any TreasonGate trials. Fitz is, for any meaningful purposes, the Attorney General with regard to the investigation. If the plug is to be pulled, Fitz will be the one pulling it.

Perhaps my (wishful) thinking is that this thing is just way too big for anyone (like McNulty) to sabotage or pull the plug. I think the media is onto this story and I feel some in the media want to be the first to break the whole story and find the common intersection of where Plame meets Nigergate meets AIPAC meets Abramoff meets Bushco meets RNC.

Perhaps a "wilma effect" of explosive deepening will take place when the warm subsurface sea of evidence is sucked up into the crisis. Instead of cooling the controversy, latent energy in the form neoclown posturing, not just in the media, but also in the intelligence community, will feed the circulation and enlarge the storm rapidly. Then, like wilma, the storm will bed down upon our favorite resort town (vacationland, d.c.) for a prolonged scrubbing. Naturally the looting will recommence when the steering currents take hold.

Who knows who McNulty is? This isn't 1972 when the Watergate prosecutor was fired. By that time, the Watergate scandal had already been on the front pages for a while. People were paying attention, and the firing didn't help Nixon. Nowadays, I'm afraid, that if McNulty makes part of Traitorgate "just go away" a few months from now, with the ongoing willingness of the media to ignore the story, it will indeed, go away and be less of a factor in midterms next year, and in 2008. Surely this is Bu$hCo's calcualtion.

What dj moonbat said --

Somewhere in blogistan, someone wrote that Fitzgerald has plenary powers of the office of the Attorney General -- meaning, NOBODY can fire him, not even George W Bush.

It may or may not be true, but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling for Fitzmas Eve.

Steve-

Find an Italian translator quick. Via Josh, Italian news article has published an article on the niger forgery.

Italians figure Fitzgerald will expose their dirty tricks with a helping hand from DICK's people so they want to get out there first.

http://www.repubblica.it/2005/j/sezioni/esteri/iraq69/sismicia/sismicia.html

If you read the analysis by Citizen Spook, no one has authority over Fitzgerald. The way his appointment was written, he is the Attorney General in this case. He has no limits as to the scope of the investigation and he is not subordinate to anyone in DOJ. He's as close to bullet-proof as any investigator has ever been.

Dear Leftcoaster, I hope the following article will clear up any misinformation regarding Larry Franklin and his connection to AIPAC.

JPost.com » International » Article

Oct. 25, 2005 0:38 | Updated Oct. 25, 2005 5:48
Israelis to be called as AIPAC witnesses
By NATHAN GUTTMAN
Washington

Lawyers for the two former AIPAC staffers accused of communicating classified information, wish to call to the stand three Israeli diplomats who were in touch with the defendants. In a notice to court, filed Friday at the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, lawyers for Steve Rosen and Keith Wiessman, the former AIPAC employees who are now facing charges, declare their intention to summon the three Israelis to testify as witnesses for the defense. The three Israelis are not named, but sources close to the case have confirmed in the past that they are Naor Gilon, the former political officer in the Israeli embassy in Washington, Rafi Barak, the former Deputy Chief of Mission and a third Israeli who was not identified.

"Counsel for the defendants are presently attempting to secure the appearance of these witnesses at trial, either voluntarily or pursuant to subpoena", write attorneys for the two AIPAC defendants to US judge T.S. Ellis. They state in the letter, that if a personal testimony in court will not be possible, the defense will seek depositions from the three Israelis.

The letter states that early notice is given to court regarding the Israeli witnesses, because of the difficulty making sure they will actually testify.

David Siegel, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, confirmed that the lawyers representing the embassy have received a notice from the defendants requesting the testimony and that the request is being examined.

The three Israeli diplomats mentioned in the Rosen-Weissman indictment had diplomatic immunity while serving in Washington and are not obliged to appear in court. The prosecution in the case has also requested to question the Israelis about the case and has not yet finalized the method of conducting this questioning.

The August indictment against the former AIPAC employees claims that Rosen and Weissman had received classified information from Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin unlawfully and passed on that information to journalists and to Israeli diplomats. Franklin, in a plea bargain, entered a guilty plea to several charges and agreed to testify against Rosen and Weissman.

The trial is due to begin January 3 in the US District Court in Alexandria.