Angler

Somebody didn't think this through:

Published reports that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be the guest of honor at the Manchester-based American Museum of Fly Fishing's annual dinner at the New York Angler's Club on March 5 has the organization re-examining that decision.

With Cheney's record on environmental issues during his eight years as VP you would think a less controversial person might be a wiser selection.

Cheney Impeachment Hearings?

Three Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee (Robert Wexler (D., Fla.), Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.)) are calling for the hearings into the impeachment of Dick Cheney go ahead.

Last month, the House of Representatives voted to send a resolution of impeachment of Vice President Cheney to the Judiciary Committee. As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we strongly believe these important hearings should begin.

Although they do not cite the allegations that Cheney's office may be implicated in the CIA Interrogation Tape Destruction Scandal, they do mention the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame as one of the issues that requires investigation.

The Dark and Treacherous Dick and His Bizarro World of Truth

Scott Horton's interesting and informative analysis of the CIA Tape Destruction Scandal links to two very important pieces about the cover up of the destruction of the tapes and its possible ramifications. Who may be at the end of this dastardly trail of obfuscation and vicious abrogation of the law is a matter of connecting dots and additional investigation. However, one fact that I was not aware of, or that maybe I overlooked, is that retired CIA agent John Kiriakou is linked to the Scooter Libby case:

According to a declassified document filed with the court after the Libby trial and obtained by Mother Jones, Kiriakou authored a June 10, 2003, email sent to several CIA officials. The message apparently was written in response to intense efforts at that time by the vice president's office to learn how Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had been selected to go on a CIA-sponsored fact-finding mission to Niger. The email makes clear that senior CIA officials, including Kiriakou's boss and the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, did not know who Valerie Wilson was at the time. Prodded by Cheney's office, they were seeking information on her role at the agency prior to a scheduled conversation with Libby the next day.

Is the real issue here that Kiriakou links, not only the Plame outing, but the destruction of these tapes to the Vice President's Office? Cheney's current Chief of Staff David Addington is one of those named as a member of a group of four White House staffers involved in discussions about the propriety of destroying the tapes.

It has emerged that at least four White House staff were approached for advice about the tapes, including David Addington, a senior aide to Dick Cheney, the vice-president, but none has admitted to recommending their destruction.

The web woven by the Vice President is indeed one of treachery, secrecy, and deceit, not seen on this scale since the reign of Nixon. Recall that Cheney served as Chief of Staff for then President Gerald Ford, the man who pardoned Nixon. Cheney has spent 32 of the last 35 years advocating a return to the days of the Imperial Presidency.