It Is Time to Investigate the White House's Betrayal of Trust

Our country has spent over four years attempting to unravel the story surrounding the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity by members of the Bush administration to a number of journalists. The leak jeopardized our national security and belies the administration's long standing claim that they and the Republican Party are best suited to keep America safe.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was one of the key figures in the Bush administration's efforts to respond publicly to the investigation into the Plame leak. He spoke for the White House and he was the filter through which the public learned about which officials were and were not involved in the leak. Standing in front of the White House Seal, McClellan famously denied any White House involvement in the leak, "If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration."

Yesterday we found out that this simple statement attesting to McClellan's faith in the Bush administration's lawful behavior appears to be patently untrue. McClellan tells us, "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."

We need to launch an immediate investigation to determine the facts of this case, the extent of any cover up and determine what the President knew and when he knew it. If in fact the President of the United of States knowingly instructed his chief spokesman to mislead the American people, there can be no more fundamental betrayal of the public trust.

That any White House official, let alone the President and the Vice President of the United States, would instruct others to mislead the American people about revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent is beyond unconscionable. It is an action that makes us less safe and secure. Worse still, it undermines the ability of our intelligence community to act with the confidence that their work will not be jeopardized in order to advance the partisan interests of one political party.

The American public deserves to know the extent of President Bush's involvement in both the leak of Valerie Plame's identity and what efforts, if any, he made to direct a cover up. Scott McClellan has brought forward a new piece to this sordid puzzle - it is time, once and for all, for the public to know the full story behind the betrayal of Valerie Plame by the Bush administration.

Learn more about my candidacy for the Presidency at ChrisDodd.com.

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Comments

[Maschine]

Investigation....????


Mr. Dodd , if you have any hope of becoming President of the United States this is your opportunity.

There are alot of Democrats waiting for someone to take this task on, there are alot of independetns looking for a leader. You aren't getting younger, if you truly want to be president, then you must make a tough decision. Stand outside the box and call for an Impeachment. Do you beleive in your country, do you believe in truth, do you beleive you have a hope in hell of winning the Presidency as you satnd right now. Come on, make a choice.

I dare you, I double dare you.

[sleepless]

Dear Senator,
I love your, so far, lone stance on FISA, and this strong response to the Scottie news. Congress HAS to respond with, AT THE LEAST, impeachment. AND, could one of you candidates PLEASE respond to the insulting questions tossed at you at the 'detates'? Media Matters shows that NOT ONE question has been asked re primary executive, NOT ONE mention of the MCA (which killed the constitution point blank) or torture, and ON and ON and ON. Can't you guys LEAD us to substance istead of responding to junk? Why is it so hard to confront the likes of Russert and Blitzer, and all the other TV mouthpieces?

[Dap]

==

If you really want to get to the bottem of this...

David Addington is the guy that must be grilled.

The VP's chief of staff David Addington is the key.

[SamThornton]

The argument that there is not enough time for impeachment before the end of Mr. Bush's term is simply baloney.

Congressional action on the Nixon impeachment began May 9, 1974, when the House voted to open hearings, and lasted until August 9, 1974 when Nixon resigned shortly before what appeared to be a likely nearly unanimous vote in the Senate against him. That's a total of 3 months to the day for the entire impeachment action.

Frankly, you can't complain about Bush thumbing his nose at Congress and the American people in one breath, then refuse to call him to account in the next, and still expect any credibility at all.

Long past time the Congress got off their collective duffs and started earning their money for what they were elected to do, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign *and domestic*.

[Independent voter]

Dear Seantor Dodd,

Why bother with an investigation when you know that you can not get the truth or supporting information that you need out of the Bushies?

[gappytoofcondi]

Mr Dodd:
Where have you been since 2001? Let's look at the scorecard:
>Stolen election with the assistance from the SCOTUS in 2000. Additionally, there is ample evidence that the 2004 election was stolen with voter fraud in Ohio.
>False/cooked intelligence to get us into a pre-emtive war. Not to mention failure to complete the job of capturing the masterminds of the attacks of 9/11.
>Systematic dismanteling of the Constitution.
>Outing an covert intelligence agent.
>Turning the DOJ into a branch of the WH, all the while supressing investigations and potential criminal indictments.
>Signing statements to subvert the laws passed by congress.
>Suspension of habeous corpus, a benchmark of our legal system for hundreds of years.
>Violation of the Geneva Convention condoning torture.
>Violations of the Hatch Act and record keeping act. Systematic non compliance with any requests for documentation, memorandum, etc. in legislative investigations. Inherent contempt could have been charged.
>Illegal wiretapping, spying on the American Public. Side issue is how the Senate would even CONSIDER immunity to the corporations who assisted the WH in this nefarious activity.
In other words, each of the above would constitute an impeachable offense. The president clearly has violated his oath of office. Therefore, my confusion is based on the issue of why this has been allowed to continue since the 2006 elections. I fully realize that we do not have the sixty seven votes in the Senate to complete the impeachment process, but the process was not even STARTED under this 110th Congress and Senate.
We voted in 2006 to mandate change. Specifically, our biggest issue was corruption which exceeded the war issue. Sorry, but the lack of action is a huge disappointment. there is still time for redemption, but as a voter and a citizen of this country, I AM DISGUSTED WITH CULTURE OF THE DC BELTWAY.

[CitizenLegislatorCC]

4. Under a Rule 6(e) grand jury secrecy exception in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the comprehensive and extensive secret grand jury evidence record already compiled by the investigation into this leak is available - from the Judicial Branch upon request - to an impeachment committee (but no other committee) of the House.

5. We do not prejudge. But neither do we continue to turn our backs on, and a blind eye to, the indications of grave Executive Branch official misconduct that are in the public record - yet unexplained to the nation, because publicly unexamined by its Congress. Thus, we will be asking the House to authorize its Judiciary Committee to establish a public impeachment committee of inquiry into the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson, including obtaining and updating the secret evidence given to the grand jury during the Special Counsel's investigation.

6. If the actions to expose CIA Officer Plame were deliberate, they must be exposed and punished. If they were inadvertent, that too must be made known, so that unsubstantiated charges in the media may be refuted and removed from public discourse as baseless and misleading political rumor.

[CitizenLegislatorCC]

Senator Dodd, this is an example (1-6, in two parts) of how I would suggest you (and especially the Democratic leadership of the House and the members of the House Judiciary Committee) speak to the media about this matter with firm, principled, moral authority, repeatedly, and soon:

1. It's time to return good government to this nation at the federal level. Our federal government - its Executive and Legislative Branches - have failed the good people of this country, for years now. The standards of conduct in public office have been allowed to fall far below the level the people of this nation deserve, and rightly expect of those acting on their behalf. We are determined to put things right, starting now.

2. As we all know, a covert CIA Officer - who was helping to defend our nation and the world from the dangerous proliferation of nuclear weapons to and by bad faith, rogue actors - had her cover blown, and her clandestine spying career ended, by her own government, under this president. Yet, this president then commuted the short prison sentence of the one participant in that outing - who was the highest level aide to the Vice President and an aide to the President himself - who was charged and convicted by a jury of his peers.

3. The Congress has never investigated the obvious and gross abuse of office, and betrayal of public trust, that resulted in CIA Officer Plame's exposure, in deference to the work of the grand jury. With the grand jury's work effectively concluded, the time has come for Congress to get involved, in order to determine not just whether further violations of the criminal code have occurred, but most importantly, whether - or not - violations of our Constitution and its oaths of office, and of minimal standards of ethical and responsible conduct, have been committed by high Executive Branch officials.

[ScooterLiddy]

WMDs, making the facts fit the policy, waterboarding, habeaus corpus, Jose Padilla, Abu Graib, Yellow Cake uranium, aluminum tubes, Haditha, collateral damage.

Impeach? How about War Crimes Tribunal??

[Mikie]

Yea Chris, God forbid that a President should ever lie to the American public. I'm sure this has never happened before... Please, go back to the Senate and actually do something for a change. There are real problems in this country that we elected you to deal with and so far this Congress hasn't done jack. Maybe I will vote for the Libertarians in 2008.

[outnow]

Senator Dodd,

I support your position entirely. We must restore the constitution, end the war, and make war funding contingent on withdrawal, and impeach Richard B. Cheney.

How many slaps in the face will we take from these usurpers of our constitution who have lied to us and the entire world. Nothing could be more important that to bring these evil men to justice.

Only you, as our elected representatives, have the power. You must exercise this power and perform your duty to the People. In the long run, it is our only hope to throw off the yoke of the corporations that dominate the political process in thee United States.

Thank you for your kind assistance. I support you. (And have supported your campaign).

[onlymoments]

Congress tried to impeach a former President for a sexual daliance that no one but die-hard Clinton haters really cared about. Now we have the biggest power-mad President since Nixon and he did something Nixon would have never done-revealing a CIA covert agent, a treasonous act. And where is the outrage? Coverups begatting coverups, and no one does a thing citing left wing conspiricies and other nonsense while Carl Rove manipulates and completely destroys all semblance of trust in government. America, where are you now? Congressman, what are you going to do? How many more lies will it take?

[BlueBoomer]

Dear Senator Dodd,
The 11-letter word missing from your blog begins with an I and ends with a t...And the fact that you don't even mention it is dissapointing.

In an NPR interview 6 months ago, your colleague, Joe BIDEN, who was in the Senate during the Nixon impeachment hearings, explained why the Senate wasn't considering impeachment for Bush/Cheney (his personal preference being to start with VP Cheney, His experience with the impeachment proceedings then was ALL-CONSUMING for the Senate, and precluded any other Senate business being done (assuming, of course, that the House initiates the process)...Given the short-timer status of this administration, he implied that the "cost" in time/effort would not be worth the results, which would probably extend past the end of the current term anyway, making it somewhat moot, except for the history books.

But he has at least uttered the word that seems to stick in the throats of everyone else (except for Dennis Kucinich)...AND he has indicated a specific scenario that would cause him to call for impeachment (un-authorized attack on IRAN. I am curious to hear his feelings about this newest revelation, tho'.

What I hope Congress or the AG will consider after the elections is the possibility of criminal action against Bush and Cheney and Rove, so that not only will justice be served for crimes already committed, BUT, that future administrations will see that they cannot decimate the constitution and betray the American people and go about their business unscathed.

We can only hope.

[NWGuy]

While this all seemed obvious to most of us, don't forget that the White House Press Corp sat there and drank up all the drivel McClellan spewed forth. No critical thinking, just passing on lie after lie to the public. They continue this to this day!

The democrats should have screamed the loudest and called him on his crap but were scared of being labeled as not supporting the troops. The republicans should have screamed and yelled because here was a government being dishonest to the public, but they had chosen to blindly and unquestioningly support a dishonest president than support the people and the Constitution they had taken an oath to support. The MSM just turned off their brains and obediently regurgitated whatever they were told.

I strongly believe in the form of government we have here in the US, its the people in it that are undermining it for their own greed and selfishness that I despise. Likewise, the ones in Washington that passively allow this to go on and/or turn a blind eye only deserve our disdain.

Time to clean out Washington!!

[hrayovac]

"Yesterday we found out" is I trust, generalizing what will be publicly admitted to by those members of the Senate such as Chris Dodd who don't like real confrontations or fear that they will be savaged publicly. The Senator can be applauded for his stance to protect the Constitution during this campaign cycle, but impeachment should have been on the table at least as early as 2003.

There is a distinct lag between Dodd's statement of fact and that which has been known for years by everyone who has the capacity to reason. That this president's spokesfolk have been lying like dogs for years is not a revelation.

End this lag forever. Obama '08.