"If"

WHY DIDN'T CHENEY CORRECT THE RECORD?
by Dick Morris

If The New York Times is correct (a big "if"), Cheney told his chief of staff, Scooter Libby, about Joe Wilson's wife and her possible role in his selection to go to Niger to verify the story about the sale of yellow cake to Iraq. While Cheney clammed up, Libby told the world, and possibly the grand jury, that he learned this from a journalist.

If Libby lied in public, it is unfortunate. If he did so before the grand jury, it could be criminal. Either way, the vice president knew that he was not telling the truth — yet did nothing in public, or presumably in private, to correct him.

There is nothing criminal in Cheney or Libby finding out about Valerie Plame. They had security clearance and every right to know. What is wrong is for Cheney's staffer to mislead the public with the complicity of a silent veep.

Critics suspect Cheney orchestrated a campaign to discredit Wilson, and that this included the release of his wife's name, in violation of the law. The prosecutor should sort that out, but other questions should concern the public.

Why did the vice president choose to remain silent and keep his role from public view? Did Cheney tell the prosecutor he was the one who told Libby about Plame? Did he tell the president?

Assuming the Times has its facts right, the burden of proof shifts to Cheney. It is incumbent on him to explain why he let his chief of staff mislead the public — for two years, including the entire 2004 presidential campaign.

There may be an innocent explanation for the veep's silence, or the Times may be wrong. But Dick Cheney owes us all an explanation."

Now, I know it's Dick's job to do whatever he can to get onboard the Hillary in '08 bandwagon, but making suppositions from the barest of facts is best left to someone named Holmes, not Morris. "If" the Times is correct, "if" Cheney didn't tell Bush, "if" Libby lied to Cheney or Bush or the grand jury, hey, there's a poem by a fella named Kipling that does it far better so leave so many if's unspoken until the smoke clears...but wait...

Everyone ELSE was chiming in on the deal so Dicky HAD to throw his own no-cents into the pot. IF Dick DIDN'T say something, ANYTHING, and IF Hillary was watching, and IF she was displeased, and IF this means he doesn't get on the gravytrain, and IF he has to continue to eke out a living appearing on O'Reilly once every couple weeks and cranking out a 4-paragraph essay now and again, it could mean he moves to Alaska and takes up panning for gold to make ends meet. Eureka!

Messenger Exclusive: Dick Morris To Move To Juno

Hey, it's as accurate as his trail of woebegotten-if's, so why not.