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Vice President Richard Cheney’s Chief of Staff I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby watches during a photo opportunity in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, October 24, 2005.

Financial Times has Indictments in CIA leak case ‘about to be handed down.

Indictments in the CIA leak investigation case are expected to be handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday, bringing to a head a criminal inquiry that threatens to disrupt seriously President George W. Bush’s second term.

On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week.

Those in legal jeopardy may include Lewis “Scooter” Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Mr Bush’s chief political strategist.

Flap may have this wrong.

Joseph Wilson may get his wish of having Karl Rove frog marched out of the White House:

“At the end of the day, it’s of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.”

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, Valerie Wilson, Patrick Fitzgerald

UPDATED:

The New York Times has Senators in G.O.P. Voice New Doubt on Court Choice

The drumbeat of doubt from Republican senators over the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers grew louder Tuesday as several lawmakers, including a pivotal conservative on the Judiciary Committee, joined those expressing concerns about her selection.

Emerging from a weekly luncheon of Republican senators in which they discussed the nomination, several lawmakers suggested that as Ms. Miers continued her visits on Capitol Hill, she was not winning over Republican lawmakers.

“I am uneasy about where we are,” said Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican on the Judiciary Committee who had so far expressed only support for the president’s choice. “Some conservative people are concerned. That is pretty obvious.”

Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, called Republican sentiment toward Ms. Miers’s nomination “a question mark.”

“There is an awful lot of Republican senators who are saying we are going to wait and see,” he said.

Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican in the political middle of his party, said he needed “to get a better feel for her intellectual capacity and judicial philosophy, core competence issues.”

“I certainly go into this with concerns,” Mr. Coleman said.

But, these are NOT the only Senators with concerns…….

Coming less than two weeks before confirmation hearings, the public questioning by Republican senators may be an ominous sign. Of the 10 Republicans on the 18-member Judiciary Committee, Mr. Sessions joins two others who have publicly raised concerns: Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has questioned her legal views on abortion rights, and the committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, has said Ms. Miers could benefit from a “crash course in constitutional law.”

Several Republican aides, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said two other Republican committee members, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, had privately raised questions about her judicial philosophy. Both declined to comment on their views of her.

And leaving the lunch meeting on Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a Judiciary Committee member, acknowledged that senators who had met with Ms. Miers were telling colleagues that they had been unimpressed.

“She needs to step it up a notch,” Mr. Graham said.

Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, said there was not much enthusiasm for the nomination among Senate Republicans, although most had “held their fire.”

The Fat Lady has sung.

Harriet Miers will NOT be confirmed.

With the turmoil in the White House due to the possible indictments of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, the White House counsel should return to her office and allow the President another nomination.

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Flap is bumping this to the top awaiting the New York Times Wednesday edition which will only corroborate what Flap has said:

I oppose the Miers nomination.

The Truth Laid Bear has Call to Bloggers: Take Your Stand on Miers

Flap opposes the Miers nomination.

Armed Liberal, Flap’s partner in the Galloway protest is opposed too.

Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters has Bad News Turns Into Flood On Miers.

In response, let me say that I have supported Miers’ confirmation up to now, almost exclusively on two bases: presidential prerogative and an assumption of basic competence, both on her part and the White House. The questionnaire has my confidence in the second basis badly shaken. The slapdash manner of its preparation tells me someone isn’t taking this seriously, and since Miers has her name on it, that’s her responsibility. The way she managed to antagonize Specter adds to that impression. She’s striking me as an imprecise and sloppy nominee for a position that requires absolute clarity and precision.

Given that, my reliance on presidential prerogative remains … but it doesn’t outweigh my objection to getting a substandard jurist on the Supreme Court. Waiting until the hearings for her to get exposed as that will prove a political disaster for the President and the GOP. For those reasons, I’d strongly suggest that the White House look for a way out of this, and fast.

Harriet Miers was not Flap’s first choice for nomination to the Unites States Supreme Court. Flap thought President Bush would chose another Texas jurist and former Texas Supreme Court Justice, Priscilla Owen. The President should rethink his choice.

Harriet Miers’ confirmation process is not going well:

1. Numerous petitions against her nomination

2. Numerous mis-steps in the nomination process with blunders with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and then the poorly written/constructed Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire

3. Numerous editorials asking for a withdrawl of the nomination here and here.

Flap understands that this choice is the President’s perogative.

However, Flap no longer believes Harriet Miers can be confirmed.

The Democrats will not vote for her because of her pro-life evangelical proclivities. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal “outed” a stealth deal on Roe v. Wade.

Republican Senators will be conflicted to vote her out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She does not need a positive recommendation from the committee but Flap cannot imagine a majority of Senators voting for a nominee who cannot muster a majority committee vote.

So, why go through a brutal hearing process?

Harriet Miers should ask the President withdraw her nomination and she should resume her duties as White House Counsel.

The President should then nominate former Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen.

or any of these other fine federal appeals court judges:

Janice Rogers Brown

Edith Clement

Edith Hollan Jones

Charles Krauthammer has a reasonable face-saving approach here.

Technorati Tags: Supreme Court, George Bush, Sandra Day O’Connor, Janice Rogers Brown, Edith Clement, Edith Hollan Jones, Priscilla Owen, Harriet Miers

Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, from Vacaville, Calif., pauses as she speaks to reporters in front of the White House,Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005 in Washington. With the U.S. military death toll in Iraq poised to surpass 2,000, Sheehan, who camped for 26 days in front of Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, spoke about her planned protest vigils to be held in front of the White House.

The ASSociated Press has Sheehan: Oppose Clinton if She Backs War

Cindy Sheehan, who became the face of anti-war sentiment after her son died in Iraq, urged foes of the war to thwart Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton’s political aspirations unless the New York Democrat opposes the conflict.

“I believe that any candidate who supports the war should not receive our support,” Sheehan said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “It doesn’t matter if they’re Senator Clinton or whoever.”

Is Howard Dean warming up in the bullpen?

The open letter to Hillary is here on Michael Moore’s website.

Technorati Tags: Cindy Sheehan, Hillary Clinton, Iraq War, Michael Moore

Dr. Kenneth Matsummura (C) talks with campaign volunteers (R) Jasper Summer and Herman Waters about recalling California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Berkeley, California, October 24, 2005. Matsummura, whose inventions include the first-ever artificial liver, has launched an effort to gather a million signatures to force a recall vote on Governor Schwarzenegger, who came to office two years ago following an unprecedented recall.

Flap reminds the good doctor:

Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kenneth Matsummura, recall 2006

White House Counsel Harriet Miers arrives on Capitol Hill Monday, Oct. 25, 2005, for a private meeting with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to discuss her nomination to the Suprme Court.

Asked about Bush Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Clinton said she’s eager for the Senate confirmation process to be played out. She did say there is one question she thinks Miers should be asked.

“Please tell us one thing you disagree with the president on,” Clinton said to loud applause from the crowd.

Flap wonders what Slow Joe Biden wil ask?

Vice President Cheney speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, June 13, 2005. Cheney’s chief of staff first learned about the CIA officer at the center of a leak investigation in a conversation with Cheney weeks before her identity became public in July 2003, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The New York Times has Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report.

I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.

The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the war.

Lawyers involved in the case, who described the notes to The New York Times, said they showed that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.

Mr. Libby’s notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson. But they contain no suggestion that either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby knew at the time of Ms. Wilson’s undercover status or that her identity was classified. Disclosing a covert agent’s identity can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent’s undercover status.

These are interesting facts but does it make a case against Scooter Libby or the Vice President?

Does the discrepancy between Mr. Libby’s notes and his testimony to a federal grand jury rise to a crime?

This investigation has been going on for over two years and the taxpayers have picked up the tab.

Flap handicaps Fitzgerald files NO charges against Scooter Libby or Karl Rove. And the Grand Jury simply expires on Friday.

There is simply NO criminal conduct here.

The White House reaction to this revelation by the N.Y Times is White House Sidesteps Cheney Questions

Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, arrives, Monday, Oct. 24, 2004, at the side door at the White House to attend a cabinet meeting. Prosecutors have gathered evidence that top White House aides Karl Rove and Libby exchanged information about their contacts with reporters regarding Valerie Plame in the days just before the CIA officer’s cover was blown.

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, Valerie Wilson, Patrick Fitzgerald