Scooter, Coulter, Halliburton

Reading up a bit on the progress of the Valerie Plame leak investigation, I ran across the following excerpt from a CNN interview involving Ann Coulter:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/28/coulter-leak/

O’BRIEN: So there you have it, Karl Rove apparently escaping indictment, but that’s the good news. The bad news is, on goes the investigation. What are your thoughts on that one?

COULTER: That is like the worse possible outcome.

O’BRIEN: Oh, an indictment would be better?

COULTER: I think so. I mean, I don’t think indictments are particularly big deal politically. They’re a big deal for whoever gets indicted, but I don’t think it really matters to the White House. I’ve just been thinking, this is going to be lancing the boil. Let’s just get it done one way or the other this Friday. Either they get indicted and they leave, or they’re not indicted and it’s over. To stay under investigation — that is not the best possible outcome.

Responding to this and quite a litany of ad hominem attacks on Coulter, of whom I am admittedly not a fan but have no desire to harm as long as I don't have to watch her on TV, I posted the following:

I think an indictment for leaking information in order to help to cover up other information used to deceive Congress and the public into supporting a war would indeed be a serious problem for the administration, and would and should open up more investigations. I also think the shots are going beyond cheap here (not that I haven’t seen worse on conservative bulletin boards, Jeremy), but I will go so far as to agree that Coulter’s arguments and opinions have never impressed me any more than any of the other so-called "conservative pundits", a job for which the chief qualification seems to be the unwillingness to back down from the latest spin. One has to be a sort of a cross between a bulldog and a parrot, metaphorically speaking. But today, I’ll give Coulter a little credit for showing a bit of humility on behalf of the neocons, who should be chastened.

I also saw Joseph Wilson on C-Span yesterday, talking to the National Press Club. Wilson, Valerie Plame's husband and former Ambassador to Iraq, is considered to have been the actual target of Plame's outing as a CIA agent, as he had begun publicly speaking out on the fact that he had travelled to Niger on a quasi-official trip and determined pretty conclusively that no yellow cake uranium from there had been sold to Saddam, contrary to what the Bush Administration claimed after they should have had his report, buttressing their case for war with the fear of nuclear weapons which they didn't know to exist and which in fact did not exist. All of which, if I may say it one more time, has produced enormous profit for Halliburton, the company which still pays Dick Cheney a stipend (always follow the money when watching the Bush Administration). So in other words, for those who are confused by the talk of indictments, the Administration is accused of illegally exposing the identity of a CIA agent, exposing her to possible danger, in order to retaliate against her husband for exposing evidence that the Administration lied to get us into war. Add to this that the real motive for sending American youths to Iraq to fight and die may have been profits for Administration cronies, e.g. Halliburton, and one can begin to see why many people are calling for Bush's impeachment.

On a sidenote, Wilson seemed a bit puzzled by the fact that everyone but his family refers to his wife by her "maiden" name. The Raving Moderate (doing his best imitation of Miss Manners by referring to himself in the third person) is perfectly in favor of women keeping their name, or men changing theirs with equal frequency, but is also quite willing to call people whatever they would like to be called, and occasionally to call them things they don't want to be called.

BTW, I'd like to thank those folks who are at least watching my blog closely enough now to reply with SPAM comments whenever I add a new post. This is progress. Perhaps I will begin replying on your sites.