Saturday, July 16, 2005

John Dean

I really like John Dean. I read his stuff over at Findlaw and can't get enough. I don't know why I never see anyone link to Findlaw's commentary, but they often have interesting opinions. Even the dumb lawyers can have something interesting to say. But John Dean is the best. He helped bring Nixon down, and he writes excellent legal commentary. You should read all of his stuff.

He just gave his two cents on the Valerie Plame thing (who he correctly refers to as Valerie Wilson, another reason to like him), and I think it's a pretty good read. His point is that the oft given federal statute regarding covert CIA operatives is unlikely to apply to Rove, but that an entirely different statute almost certainly does. And that a recent prosecution of a DEA agent with this other statute was touted by the Justice Department as a warning against leakers. We can only hope that he's right.

Here's another good column, by guest columnist Louis Klarevas, this time regarding Judith Miller's jailing. It's pretty good, though I've never read the guy's stuff before and he looks like a complete doof; so I don't vouch for his accuracy. Oh, and my last recommendation from there is Michael C. Dorf, who usually has some smart lawyery stuff to say. But if you have a lot of time, and want to read some decent legal commentary, you should just scan through the whole commentary section and see what you like. And yes, this is what I do for fun.

(fixed links)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...


Broken link report: fix and delete

''the Valerie Plame thing'' link has an extra http// in it. Deleting _that_ makes the link work. This may be a problem with blogger.

I liked your post, #25 on Think Progress, 14Jul05, 5:09PM, ''Dick Armey’s Hypocrisy on CIA Leak Case.''

The ''rubes'' are part of the Republican spin machine, that is, they know exactly what they're doing. Power corrupts. They're corrupt.

What does a 2nd term president need a political operative like Rove for? Rove must have something on the big dog or he would have been let go long ago.

Fix link and delete

Doctor Biobrain said...

Thanks for the tip on the links. I guess I was just tired last night, because most of those links were bad.

As for the "rubes", by my definition they are not part of the spin machine, or not intentionally so, anyway. I intend to post on this at some point, but there are different levels of rubeness on the Right.
But the rubes are the ones being fooled by the scammers. I save that category solely for those who are complete victims, and are only repeating the lies that they told; believing them to be true.

Oh, and as for Rove sticking around, you have to remember that there is an 8-year election season for Presidents. Clinton did it too, but Bush (or Rove) does it better. If you're not constantly campaigning and spinning, you're dead in the water. I find it funny that folks used to attack Clinton for that, when Bush is so much more obvious about it. Especially with his Social Security campaign stops. Besides, Rove isn't there just to help Bush. He's there to help the Republicans.

Beyond that, I've posted before that I think Rove was demoted last January or so. I think Bush was just trying to act assertive, without actually removing his top brain.