Big Wheels

If you’re an obsessed liberal like me, you’re already up on the BIG news within the lefty-blogosphere, but for the rest, I have a couple of predictions to make:

• Cheney is off the Bush ticket in 04, citing health concerns, of course.
• Condi Rice is out, um, let’s say by next January. This will be a “need rest and relaxation” resignation, but we’ll know that’s not true.
• Karl Rove is brought before Congress, possibly brought up on charges, but definitely cannot help the reelection campaign for Georgie-boy next year.

And here is why: There is a story that you probably haven’t heard much about yet, unless you read the Washington Post (requires a simple, one-time registration). The long and short of it is two people in the White House exposed the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson as an undercover operative for the CIA. Last July, these two shopped around a story about Wilson’s wife to at least six reporters before they got Robert Novak to break the story.

Joseph Wilson, for those who may not recognize the name, went to Niger last year to find out information on the supposed sale of Yellowcake Uranium from Niger to Iraq. The documents Wilson was given were poor forgeries and fakes; there was no sale. Wilson let the Administration back in Washington know this, but the Bushies still felt it would sound good in the State of the Union Address, last January. These are the infamous “sixteen words.” Wilson, sick of hearing the faked documents used as proof of Saddam’s WMD program, told the press in July his findings.

A week later, Novak runs with the story about Wilson’s wife. It was pure revenge from the White House, trying to send a chilling-effect to anyone else who may have the bright idea of exposing the Adminstration’s lies. And it was also highly illegal, a felony that can cost $50,000 in fines and 10 years in prison.

Boys and girls, this is it. This is the big one. This is going to shake up the Bush White House like only one other event in recent history. I’ll leave it up to you to guess which Nixon scandal I am comparing this to.

For MUCH MUCH more coverage of this, read the above linked article in the Washington Post, this article from the Nation (from July when the story was new), and check out ongoing blog coverage from Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, including an interview with Wilson, and Atrios.

There have been a thousand cuts that should have had this Administration bleeding to death and on life-support, but this one has the CIA looking for an arrest from the Justice Department. This cut may have hit an artery.

Edited: Wilson went to Niger not Iraq… duh.