Progressive Talking Points - October 25th 2005

Involvement at the Highest Levels

October 25, 2005

The outing of Valerie Plame is not about the White House “smearing political foes.” It is about the White House manipulating intelligence to sell the war in Iraq and then lying to cover it up. With today’s disclosure that the Vice President was the original source of Lewis Libby’s information on Valerie Plame, we know that Cheney played a key role in the effort to discredit Wilson. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will determine if any criminal wrongdoing occurred. Independent of his findings, the White House has some very serious questions to answer:

• If the Vice President has nothing to hide, why wasn’t his conversation with Libby disclosed two years ago? If the Vice President has nothing to hide, why did he say on Meet the Press – three months after his conversation with Libby about Plame – that he that he didn’t know “who sent Joe Wilson” and that he had “no idea who hired him”?
  
  
• Why did Lewis Libby lie to the grand jury about where he learned of Plame's identity? Did the Vice President instruct Mr. Libby to lie to the grand jury? Did the Vice President instruct Libby to disclose Plame’s identity in an effort to discredit Wilson? Was the Vice President also Karl Rove’s source?
  
  
• Finally, what discussions did the President and the Vice President have about Wilson's report? President Bush has already said that the two spoke of the matter. The President must explain to the nation what role he had in the effort to discredit Wilson and answer for the actions of his Vice President and his White House.