Cheney, By Proxy

"After all, the March 1, 1974 indictment of Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Chuck Colson (who pled guilty, rather than risk a trial) charged each of them with a conspiracy to obstruct justice by offering to provide clemency to those involved in the Watergate break-in. In addition, as Nixon's tapes showed, the president discussed pardons on several occasions, and this abuse of power was included in the bill of impeachment against him that was pending when he resigned.

"If Libby had been acting on his own behalf, a pardon would present no problem; Bush and Cheney could feel it was the humanitarian thing to do, given his long service to the government. However, no one I know believes Libby was acting simply for himself, nor does the evidence suggest it.

"Let's suppose, instead, that Libby was doing Cheney's bidding, and that Cheney was deeply involved in both Libby's leak of Valerie Plame's CIA status and the lies Libby subsequently concocted to deflect attention away from the Vice President. If so, then there was a conspiracy to obstruct justice -- and if Cheney should go to Bush and request that he pardon Libby, he would be furthering that conspiracy. No wonder then, that Special Counsel Fitzgerald remarked during the Libby trial that there was 'a cloud' over the Vice President.

"Come Tuesday, that cloud could get much darker for Cheney."

In my March 8 column, Did Libby Make a Deal?, I raised the possibility that Libby had reached some sort of deal with the White House: A pardon in return for not airing the administration's dirty laundry.

The Trial Transcripts

Union Square Press releases tomorrow an edited compilation of the transcripts of the Libby trial: The United States v. I Lewis Libby. In his introduction, investigative reporter Murray Waas writes that it's hard to imagine Libby acted alone, given his sterling reputation for loyalty.

"Paul Wolfowitz, who was once Libby's political science professor at Yale and served alongside him as Deputy Secretary of Defense, said of his indictment on criminal charges: 'He's always been excruciatingly careful, which is ironic in this situation.'

"The Republican operative, Mary Matalin, who was in charge of Cheney's public relations affairs for the early part of his tenure as Vice President, said that Libby was 'Cheney's Cheney,' and that he was 'an absolutely salient translator' for Cheney.

"Though the irony may be lost on these supportive individuals, in attempting to serve as character witnesses for Libby in the court of public opinion, Wolfowitz, Matalin, and other administration officials who spoke in his favor and on his behalf were also serving as fact witnesses against the Vice President. If Scooter Libby was not someone apt to go off on his own against the wishes of his boss but rather was his 'salient translator,' how likely could it be that Libby would -- entirely on his own -- leak the identity of Valerie Plame to the media?"

Bush's Trip

International summitry generally provides Bush a chance to improve his image. There's always lots of pomp, and the canons of diplomacy require everyone to flatter to everyone else -- at least in public.

The White House further primed the pump last week with announcements about Darfur, AIDS and climate change intended to mollify, defuse or at least muddle critiques of the U.S. likely to emerge at the upcoming G8 Summit that is the main reason for Bush's jaunt.

But as Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press, Bush will be meeting at a summit in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin, "with whom already frayed relations are straining toward the breaking point because of Bush's ambition to erect a missile defense system on Moscow's doorstep."