John Dean (Salon): More vicious than Tricky Dick

[Dudley_DUright]

I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people. And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means.

For example, special counsel Chuck Colson, once considered the best hatchet man of modern presidential politics, went to prison for leaking false information to discredit Daniel Ellsberg's lawyer. Ellsberg was being prosecuted by Nixon's Justice Department for disclosing the so-called Pentagon Papers (the classified study of the origins of the Vietnam War). But Colson at his worst could barely qualify to play on Bush's team. The same with assistant to the president John Ehrlichman, a jaw-jutting fellow who left them "twisting in the wind," and went to jail denying he'd done anything wrong in ordering a break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, where the burglars went and looked for, but did not find, real information to discredit Ellsberg.

But neither Colson nor Ehrlichman nor anyone else I knew while working at the Nixon White House had the necessary viciousness, or depravity, to attack the wife of a perceived enemy by employing potentially life-threatening tactics.

So let me share a bit of history with Ambassador Wilson and his wife. And, well aware that gratuitous advice is rightfully suspect, let me also offer them a suggestion -- drawn from some pages of Watergate history that till now I've only had occasion to discuss privately. Long before Congress became involved and a special prosecutor was appointed, Joe Califano, then general counsel to the Democratic National Committee and later a Cabinet officer, persuaded his Democratic colleagues to file a civil suit against the Nixon reelection committee. And that maneuver almost broke the Watergate coverup wide open. In seeking justice from the closed ranks of the Bush White House, Wilson and Plame should follow a similar strategy.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/10/03/dean/index.html

[ewagner]

1. Wow!

Great post!

[benfranklin1776]

2. Good article.

Loved this quote:

"Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people."

That about says it all. A new champion in the Presidential Administration criminality division has been crowned!

[kskiska]

3. Great article, Dudley

I took too long editing.

[realFedUp]

4. I'd love to see a class action suit

Real Americans v. Bush Inc.

a civil suit's a good idea though to get that
ball rolling.

[benfranklin1776]

5. 300 million plaintiffs who all have been irreparably harmed.

Yep the class definitely meets the numerosity requirement for the maintenance of the class action.
As for Dean's suggestion regarding Wilson it is a good one since the discovery process can unearth a mountain of relevant information. Piercing this administration's deliberately crafted iron curtain of secrecy about its activities is of paramount importance in light of its willful subsuming of our national security to political interests.

[fizzana]

6. I'd love to see Wilson & Plame file a lawsuit as Dean suggests.

You have to fight fire with fire.

[Richardo]

7. WhoEVER wins the Dem nomination should put THIS Dean on the team

IMHO

[Grins]

8. Oh God, yes!

"...file a civil suit.. God! I forgot all about that suit. That would open the doors and the courts and the media would go berserk.

We'd finally get the information we all have been asking for, and more. Isn't Judicial Watch going after Cheney anyway for the Energy meetings? Add that to the informaion from this case and you will have one pretty good history of the corruption of our political institutions by the right-wing doctrinaire ideologists.

But, which law form would you choose?

My first choice would be Baker-Botts because they know the inside of the Bush White House better than anybo…ah..., ummm..., Nah! Won’t happen. Besides, they’re too busy defending the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in that landmark lawsuit seeking $1 trillion in damages on behalf of the victims of the September 11 terror attacks.

Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering? Nope. Same case. Client is Prince Mohammed al Faisal.
Kellog, Huber, Hansen, Todd & Evans? Nope. Same case. Client is Prince Turki al Faisal.
Jones, Day? Nope? Same case. Client is the Bin Ladin Group.
Ropes & Grey?? Nope. Same case. Client is Khaled bin Mahfouz.
White & Case? Nope. Same case. Client is, the Al-Rajhi Banking Group.
King & Spalding? Nope. Same case. Client is the Arab Bank and Youssef Nada.
Akin Gump? Nope. Same case. Client is Mohammed Hussein Al-Almoudi.
Fulbright & Jaworski? Nope. Same case. Client is Nimir Petroleum.

Hmmmmm. What to do…..? Well, maybe you don’t need any law firms<[/u> at all! Remember all the lawyers scrambling, some chartering jets, to Florida in 2000 from both sides (probably didn’t matter which party) trying to be part of history? Legal names and reputations and firms were “made” from the Watergate, Whitewater, Clinton, and Florida cases. My guess is that it would be true today. Destroy evil pro-bono!