Ed Rogers, Deluded GOP Hypocrite

Everything dishonest, hypocritical and disgusting about the Republican party seems embodied in Ed Rogers, GOP strategist and former presidential advisor.

On Hardball yesterday, Rogers claimed that Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and the Bush team were completely innocent of any wrongdoing in the Valerie Plame leak. “It‘s a kidney stone. It‘s just over. It‘s just over.”

The way Rogers sees it, “In this case, it has been proven affirmatively that no one disclosed any information that as a matter of law shouldn‘t be disclosed. And that‘s what this was about.”

No. Actually, Fitzgerald found insufficient evidence to indict Rove for perjury or obstruction of justice--after giving Rove five chances to get his story straight in front of a grand jury.

Rogers also stated, “It‘s now been proven that [illegal disclosure] didn‘t happen. Let‘s move on.”

Once again wrong. Nothing has been proven. Just because a prosecutor can’t indict doesn’t prove that nothing bad or illegal happened. No judge, jury or prosecutor has ever concluded that no wrongdoing occurred in any aspect of this case.

Rogers went on to say, “The whistleblower in this case, Ambassador Wilson who you‘re talking about, did not tell the truth.”

What crazy dope is Rogers smoking? Again, he ignores facts in favor of fantasy. It is an indisputable fact that Joe Wilson told the truth about the only relevant issue--there were no nuclear materials going from Niger to Iraq.

Recall that in the last two election cycles Republicans were screaming and shouting, “We are the party of values, we are the people of faith. We are going to restore ethics to Washington.” When it came to Bill Clinton, even though he was never found guilty of a crime Republicans whined and moaned that his tryst with Monica Lewinsky was immoral, unethical and disgraceful.

Now those very same whiners, represented by Ed Rogers, claim that because Rove will never be charged with a crime his lily-white hands are clean and pure as the driven snow. So much for restoring ethics to Washington.

Perhaps it doesn’t occur to Rogers and the GOP that the outing of Plame, while never leading to an arrest for illegal disclosure, is every bit as immoral, unethical and disgraceful as anything Bill Clinton ever did. And the evidence overwhelmingly confirms that the Bush team was responsible for the smear campaign that tarnished Joe Wilson and blew the cover of his CIA wife.

Did the White House break the letter of the law? We may never know. But we know enough to say that the conduct of Cheney, Rove, Libby and others was unethical, immoral and disgraceful. To suggest otherwise is to ignore the facts and discard reason, something Ed Rogers and his party seem happy to do.