Mr Cohen will be on a WaPo live chat at 1100 to defend his Train Wreck.

Everyone should ask "Who is paying you--the Libby Defense Fund, RNC, Who?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/06/19/DI2007061901259.html

There is a coordinated Libby Apologia Campaign going on and someone is paying for it.

Isn’t it odd that 4 columnists (Hitchens, Joe Klein, Broder and Cohen) in the last couple weeks have used identical republican talking points:

–No charges on the underlying crimes

–Libby wasn’t first to leak

–Sideshow, mole hill etc

–Out of control Prosecutor

And identical factual misrepresentations:

–Ignoring the conviction on the obstruction of justice

–Plame’s cover status in doubt

All four men are intelligent. Why are they writing articles that use discredited information and are awe inspiring in their disregard of the established facts. Why would they do it?

The more you look at this the more it looks like a coordinated campaign. The only thing that makes sense is that these men are being compensated in some way. Who is paying for it? RNC? Libby Defense fund (my bet)? Who?

This smells like a Armstrong Williams type scandal.

Hitchens

http://www.slate.com/id/2168128/

Klein

http://time-blog.com/swampland.....ing_1.html

Broder

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02398.html

Cohen

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....=emailpage

The one thing that continues to sit across the table and glare at me day in and day out is this:

I really do believe that the majority of human beings would prefer to live their lives in peace and harmony with those around them. For that reason they want to give the benefit of the doubt to others whose actions may seem to reflect different motives than their own. I believe this applies as much to Americans as to any other group of people.

Libby's conviction says on its face: Libby is a liar and a criminal.

Libby worked for Cheney. Cheney, Rove, Rice, Rumsfeld and George Bush are all in this together. They are compadres. They go way back. By association, if Libby is a liar and a criminal, what does that say about the others.

Despite the desire to believe otherwise, I think that the majority of the American people are about to come to the conclusion that Cheney, Rove, Rice, Rumsfeld and George Bush are liars and criminals.

That is why they are fighting this tooth and nail. If Libby is "innocent", then they are all "innocent." If Libby is forced to go to jail, they they are all guilty through association.

And so is the MSM. And they know it.

Sex and real estate =

...what else? Clinton.

-- HeckuvaPrez

Of course that connection must have been in Cohen's mind, consciously or not. Thank you for pointing it out.

Michael, I'd like to think that you're right, that the American people as a whole are losing their trust in GWB, and more to the point, that they've seen through the machinations of Cheney and his minions. At this point, though, the issue is still in doubt. The war has soured a lot of people, as has the steady drip of revelations about how it has been and is being conducted. Still, the warnings of some of the commenters here about the durability of the underlying right-wing assault on reality should be heeded. The malicious alternate explanation they offer for virtually everything history has taught us has had some notable setbacks recently, but it still controls a large part of the court system, and still has enough wealth at its disposal to make its lies a significant, if not dominant, part of our public discourse for generations to come.

Unhappiness with the war won't stop the attack on science, or on judges, or on any form of taxation for the wealthy, or the obscene size of the so-called defense budget. The gutting of federal regulatory agencies will take more than one Democratic administration to reverse, even with two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, and the civil service will take decades to rebuild, as will the upper echelons of the military.

Nor are any of these possible successes a foregone conclusion. In a way, we've been fortunate that GWB's political management has been as woeful as we've claimed. That's why events are running against him, and events have a cumulative power which no amount of propaganda can reverse. The problem, of course, is that as soon as he's out of power, the anchor holding the right-wing's collective head under the current will be released, and they'll be back once again to attack and disrupt whatever and whoever succeeds him.

When that comes to pass, it won't be enough to point out that GWB is a putz. That has been difficult enough, but defending a Democratic administration against the usual right-wing hyenas once they get the water out of their ears and refresh their coffers will be more difficult still.

Consider Paul R's description of what LBJ suffered at their hands, not to mention Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy before him. These folks aren't going away. They've been with us since the Civil War, and they'll be here long after we're gone. The war they've declared on us isn't over. It won't ever be over as long as they're are still willing to fight it. We should be under no illusions about that.

They've been with us since the Civil War, and they'll be here long after we're gone. The war they've declared on us isn't over.

I wrote something about that around the time of the 2004 election, but reflecting back, as well, to Enron, and their looting of the coffers of California. There was a HUGE redistribution of money that occurred then, from North and West to the South. To the Enron guys it was some kind of a game.

But, there was some kind of eerie do-over of Reconstruction and Carpetbagging... it was as if they were saying: Ha! We've got you this time, and we're really going to make you pay. And, of course, more federal tax dollars do move from blue states and to red states...

I was also thinking that it makes no sense to put anyone into a situation where they have nothing to lose, not in the Middle East, or Eastern Europe, and certainly not in the American South in th 1860's. Because as you wrote above... they've been with us since [insert time], and they'll be here long after we're gone. The war... isn't over.