Skating with "Scooter"

At 9:50 a.m. (MDT) today, I celebrated as though it was my birthday, 5 months ahead of schedule. On hold with my home oxygen provider, watching MS-NBC with the sound off, I witnessed a "Breaking News Story" of epic proportions. It was akin to getting a brand new pair of roller skates (with key), an electric wheelchair, new power tools and paint brushes for the studio, and a TV that is not only cable ready, but has a built-in VCR and DVD player and actually will pick up public television in Belenistan, 30 miles south of the middle of nowhere and 250 miles west of East Armpit, Texas! It was better than a birthday!

It was the day that the prosecution in the Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame case announced that Libby had outed both Dick Cheney and George W. Bush as the sources for the NIE statement, declassified by Bush, for the purposes of outing Ms. Plame in order to cover up the infamous 16 words in the State of the Union address.

I feel I must backtrack: Since I first heard Ambassador Joe Wilson allege that Robert Novak outed the Ambassador's wife, a CIA undercover operative working on weapons of mass destruction, in July 2003, I have been waiting for this day. Wilson said he wanted to see Karl Rove "frogmarched" out of the West Wing and while there is no Karl Rove in today's announcement, it is nearly as satisfying. I had set Google Alerts for any mention in the media of Valerie Plame Wilson and/or CIA and Rove set on my computer (along with any mentions of torture and John Israel or torture and Diego Rivera -- not realizing that there is a ball player by that name!) for nearly two years before the Fitzgerald investigation began to actually make more news than my e-mail inbox could handle. I was profoundly disappointed when it seemed that the trail would end with "Scooter" Libby and mere charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. But patience is rewarded -- eventually. (Hey, maybe that's the definition of patience...) And today was the day.

Unfortunately, for the next few hours, the 24/7 cable news outlets downplayed the significance of the story and made excuses for Bush as Justice-Commander-Theologian in Chief (he can declassify whatever he wants, apparently, at whim). But by this evening it seems that the outrage moves forward. (And under the radar of this story, Bush appointed Mr. Duct Tape and Plastic Sheeting to head FEMA. But I'll let that go ...)

I can only hope that we will see Rove and Cheney and Bush "frogmarched" out of the West Wing before I actually celebrate my birthday in September. If that happens, I'll just settle for one new paint brush and maybe a ride on the back of my son J's skateboard.