WP: Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings

[boutons]

dubya's administration is polling low, declining %ages of Americans who think the admin is ethical. So dubya is gonna "fix" the ethical problem by have classes on ethics, 5 years into his term. Yet another fucking insult to The American People's "intelligence".

The ethical failures, the rot, starts at the top, like with Enron, not with the staffers, but with the dubya, dickhead, Rove.


=============

washingtonpost.com

Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings
White House Counsel to Give 'Refresher' Course

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 5, 2005; A02

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the "spirit as well as the letter" of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, "the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information," according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide.

The mandatory ethics primer is the first step Bush plans to take in coming weeks in response to the CIA leak probe that led to the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, and which still threatens Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff. Libby was indicted last week in connection with the two-year investigation. He resigned when the indictment was announced and on Thursday pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to federal investigators and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters.

A senior aide said Bush decided to mandate the ethics course during private meetings last weekend with Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and counsel Harriet Miers. Miers's office will conduct the ethics briefings.

The meetings come as Bush faces increasing pressure from Democrats to revoke a security clearance for Rove as punishment for Rove's role in unmasking to reporters a CIA operative whose husband was critical of the White House's prewar assessment of Iraq's weapons capabilities. The five-count indictment against Libby maintains that other government officials were aware of, if not involved in, leaking the identity of Valerie Plame to the media.

Bush's domestic woes followed him to a meeting of Western Hemisphere leaders in Argentina yesterday, where he sidestepped questions on whether Rove will keep his job.

Speaking to reporters before the official opening of the two-day Summit of the Americas, Bush refused to discuss Rove's future while the probe is ongoing.

"We're going through a very serious investigation," Bush said. "And I . . . have told you before that I'm not going to discuss the investigation until it's completed."

Bush also refused to address a question about whether he owes the American people an apology for his administration's assertions that Rove and Libby were not involved in leaking Plame's name, when it later became clear that they were.

Plame is the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat who became a vocal critic of the administration's rationale for invading Iraq.

"It's a serious investigation, and it's an important investigation. But it's not over yet," Bush said. "I think it's important for the American people to know that I understand my job is to set clear goals and deal with the problems we face."

The case has apparently helped erode public confidence in Bush's integrity. Among those responding to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 40 percent said they viewed the president as honest and trustworthy -- a drop of 13 percentage points in the past 18 months.

Half of those surveyed said they believed Rove did something wrong in the case, and about 6 in 10 said Rove should resign. But Bush attempted to wave away those findings yesterday.

"I understand that there is a preoccupation by polls by some," the president said. "The way you earn credibility with the American people is to declare an agenda that everybody can understand, an agenda that relates to their lives, and get the job done."

Some senior aides have privately discussed whether it is politically tenable for Rove to remain in the White House even if he is not charged. Others raised the possibility of Rove apologizing for his role, especially for telling White House spokesman Scott McClellan and Bush that he was not involved in the leak. McClellan relayed Rove's denial to the public.

A senior Bush aide said the "mandatory sessions on classified material is a result of a directive by the president in light of the [CIA] investigation."

Next week's meeting is for West Wing aides with security clearance, which allows them to view and discuss sensitive or classified material. Information about Plame was classified. Rove is among those aides who must attend.

"There will be no exceptions," the memo states.

Staff writer Michael A. Fletcher contributed to this report from Argentina.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[Dos]

and I order a ethics briefing for boutons on this forum..

[ChumpDumper]

Barn doors and cows....

[Vashner]

Good move. It's typical after fallout. At Brooks we had to do Sexual Harassment training right after the gulf war. It was a silly class. Basically I learned not to even talk to women on base rofl. And there was a lot of sex on that base since 1918. You should of seen the MP blotters.

[Yonivore]

Also, as has been stated, the Fitzgerald investigation demonstrated unprecedented cooperation and candor by a presidential administration in an investigation focused on its alleged wrongdoing.

[exstatic]

Barn doors and cows....

:lol :lol :lol :lol

At the very LEAST, Rove's clearance should be revoked. That requires no proof of intent or malice, just that he was a fucking blabbermouth about classified into, which is pretty much on the record already, vis a vis the grand jury testimony. He really couldn't continue to do his job without it. He couldn't attend any classified briefings, nor could anyone backbrief him without being in the same hot water of disclosing classified into to one without a clearance. His role in international affairs would shrink to zilch.

[Yonivore]

:lol :lol :lol :lol

At the very LEAST, Rove's clearance should be revoked. That requires no proof of intent or malice, just that he was a fucking blabbermouth about classified into, which is pretty much on the record already, vis a vis the grand jury testimony. He really couldn't continue to do his job without it. He couldn't attend any classified briefings, nor could anyone backbrief him without being in the same hot water of disclosing classified into to one without a clearance. His role in international affairs would shrink to zilch.
What classified info? It's still not been established by anyone, except the left and media, that Valerie Plame was a covert agent.

[scott]

What classified info? It's still not been established by anyone, except the left and media, that Valerie Plame was a covert agent.

And I suppose it's possible that Plame's covert status wasn't like the first thing Fitzgerald would have checked in to, or has bothered to check on through this whole ordeal...

[Yonivore]

And I suppose it's possible that Plame's covert status wasn't like the first thing Fitzgerald would have checked in to, or has bothered to check on through this whole ordeal...
I don't know.

You'd think he'd be intersted in who leaked to the Washington Post "secret prison" information recently. Or, who leaked to the New York Times the "secret airline" information of a couple years ago. But, the CIA doesn't seem interested in starting an investigation in REAL disclosures of secret information.

What else do you think is being investigated?

[ChumpDumper]

I don't know.

You'd think he'd be intersted in who leaked to the Washington Post "secret prison" information recently. Or, who leaked to the New York Times the "secret airline" information of a couple years ago. But, the CIA doesn't seem interested in starting an investigation in REAL disclosures of secret information.

What else do you think is being investigated?You need to go back and check where Fitz is employed. Such an embarrassing error shouldn't suprise me as much as it does.

[Yonivore]

You need to go back and check where Fitz is employed. Such an embarrassing error shouldn't suprise me as much as it does.
In his role as special prosecutor, he is investigating this one allegation.

Make your point.

[ChumpDumper]

In his role as special prosecutor, he is investigating this one allegation.

Make your point.Thanks for making it for me.
:lol

[Yonivore]

Thanks for making it for me.
:lol
What's his job as a U.S. attorney have to do with this investigation other than he has the requisite skills to do it?

[ChumpDumper]

What's his job as a U.S. attorney have to do with this investigation other than he has the requisite skills to do it?You act like he chooses what to investigate.

[Yonivore]

You act like he chooses what to investigate.
It was scott that suggested he exceeded the bounds of the Plame investigation.

[ChumpDumper]

It was scott that suggested he exceeded the bounds of the Plame investigation.In which thread?

[Yonivore]

In which thread?
This one...


And I suppose it's possible that Plame's covert status wasn't like the first thing Fitzgerald would have checked in to, or has bothered to check on through this whole ordeal...

[scott]

Plame's status as a covert agent certainly does not exceed the bounds of an investigation into whether or not someone leaked her status as a convert agent.

[ChumpDumper]

Are you kidding me? That is completely within the scope of Fitz's investigation. The very basis of it, in fact.

[JohnnyMarzetti]

Scooter lied and that is the bottom line and Rove ain't out of the woods yet.

[Yonivore]

Plame's status as a covert agent certainly does not exceed the bounds of an investigation into whether or not someone leaked her status as a convert agent.
And so far, Fitzgerals hasn't made a determination on that. After two years, you'd think he'd know if a) she was one, b) she had been one within the past 5 years (preceding the "leak"), c) the CIA was taking affirmative actions to conceal that, and d) the person leaking the information knew all that.

[Yonivore]

Are you kidding me? That is completely within the scope of Fitz's investigation. The very basis of it, in fact.
I agree, I just misunderstood his post.

[JohnnyMarzetti]

I agree, I just misunderstood his post.

Finally, an admission from Yoni. You could have kept it yourself -- it's not news. :lol

[ChumpDumper]

And so far, Fitzgerals hasn't made a determination on that.Actually, he simply hasn't said anything about it.

[boutons]

Even the WH staff sees Rove as a liability in trying to salvage the wreck that dubya's second term, and legacy, has become.


=========================


Rove's Future Role Is Debated

By Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig

Top White House aides are privately discussing the future of Karl Rove, with some expressing doubt that President Bush can move beyond the damaging CIA leak case as long as his closest political strategist remains in the administration.

If Rove stays, which colleagues say remains his intention, he may at a minimum have to issue a formal apology for misleading colleagues and the public about his role in conversations that led to the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to senior Republican sources familiar with White House deliberations.

While Rove faces doubts about his White House status, there are new indications that he remains in legal jeopardy from Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's criminal investigation of the Plame leak. The prosecutor spoke this week with an attorney for Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper about his client's conversations with Rove before and after Plame's identity became publicly known because of anonymous disclosures by White House officials, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.

Fitzgerald is considering charging Rove with making false statements in the course of the 22-month probe, and sources close to Rove -- who holds the titles of senior adviser and White House deputy chief of staff -- said they expect to know within weeks whether the most powerful aide in the White House will be accused of a crime.

But some top Republicans said yesterday that Rove's problems may not end there. Bush's top advisers are considering whether it is tenable for Rove to remain on the staff, given that Fitzgerald has already documented something that Rove and White House official spokesmen once emphatically denied -- that he played a central role in discussions with journalists about Plame's role at the CIA and her marriage to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a critic of the Iraq war.

"Karl does not have any real enemies in the White House, but there are a lot of people in the White House wondering how they can put this behind them if the cloud remains over Karl," said a GOP strategist who has discussed the issue with top White House officials. "You can not have that [fresh] start as long as Karl is there."

A swift resolution is needed in part to ease staff tension, a number of people inside and out of the White House said. Many mid-level staffers inside have expressed frustration that press secretary Scott McClellan's credibility was undermined by Rove, who told the spokesman that he was not involved in the leak, according to people familiar with the case.

Some aides said Rove told Bush the same thing, though little is known about the precise nature of the president's conversations with his closest political adviser.

McClellan relayed Rove's denial to reporters from the White House lectern in 2003, and he has not yet offered a public explanation for his inaccurate statements. "That is affecting everybody," said a Republican who has discussed the issue with the White House. "Scott personally is really beaten down by this. Everybody I talked to talks about this."

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff, will be arraigned today on five counts, involving three felony charges, in the leak probe. Libby also told McClellan two years ago he was not involved, a denial that was also relayed to the public.

White House communications director Nicolle Wallace said that there have not been any White House meetings to discuss Rove's fate, and that the senior adviser is actively engaged and "doing an outstanding job." She said "there is no debate" over Rove's future.

Rove has long been regarded as the most influential and feared Bush aide and has enjoyed the fervent backing of the president and influential conservatives. Republicans with firsthand knowledge of the private talks about Rove's political problems said there have been informal discussions involving people inside and outside the White House, and that they reflected the views of a large number of administration officials who are concerned about Bush's efforts to start anew in 2006 with as little interference from the scandal as possible.

In U.S. District Court today, Libby is expected to plead not guilty to the five-count indictment that charges him with obstruction of justice, perjury and false statements.

Anticipating intense media interest, court officials arranged for the arraignment to be held in the oversized Ceremonial Courtroom, which can seat hundreds and is the largest courtroom in the federal courthouse here.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, randomly selected among the trial judges, will preside over Libby's case. The judge has recently overseen the civil lawsuit of former bioweapons scientist Stephen J. Hatfill against the Justice Department for linking him to the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Libby, whose friends have begun raising money for his legal defense fund, is expected to be represented in court by Joseph A. Tate, a partner in his former law firm. But intermediaries for Libby have in recent days contacted several law firms with extensive white-collar criminal defense experience about possibly representing Libby in the near future, according to legal sources.

Rove remains in legal limbo.

Fitzgerald made it clear to Rove's attorney in private conversations last week that his client remains under investigation. And he signaled the same in his indictment of Libby on Friday, in which he identified a senior White House official who had conversations related to the Plame leak as "Official A." White House colleagues say Rove is clearly "Official A," based on the detailed description.

That kind of pseudonym is often used by prosecutors to refer to an unindicted co-conspirator, or someone who faces the prospect of being charged. No other administration official is identified in this way in Fitzgerald's indictment.

Rove was interviewed by FBI agents in the fall of 2003. He subsequently testified four times before the grand jury, which legal experts say is an unusually large number of appearances given that he was told he was a subject of the investigation and his actions were being scrutinized as possible criminal violations.

Sources close to Rove say one pressing problem for him is that he initially did not tell investigators he had a conversation with Cooper, then he produced an e-mail to a colleague in which he reported he had spoken to Cooper. He told the grand jury he could recollect very little of the conversation other than a discussion of welfare, sources said.

According to sources who were made aware of the conservation, Fitzgerald has been speaking with Cooper's attorney, Richard Sauber, by telephone in the past three days. He is said to have posed several questions to clarify whether Cooper had other conversations with Rove before and after the crucial July 12, 2003, discussion during which Cooper said Rove told him that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.

The aim was apparently to discern how common conversations were between Rove and the reporter, then a newcomer to the White House beat. Sauber, reached at his office late yesterday, declined to comment on any conversations he had with the prosecutor's team.

Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn declined to comment.

Sources close to Rove said they do not believe the strategist is in the clear, but are confident the prosecutor will determine Rove did nothing illegal.

White House critics said Rove's continued presence would expose Bush as a hypocrite. They cite his campaign promise in 2000 to run an ethical government that asks "not only what is legal but what is right" and his 2004 pledge, later softened, to fire anyone involved in the CIA leak.

Political pressure is rising from the outside. A few conservatives have suggested it is time for Rove to go. William A. Niskanen, chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute, told Reuters on Tuesday that Bush has to "sacrifice" some top aides starting with Rove, who he said has given good campaign advice but poor guidance on getting legislation passed.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said on MSNBC's "Hardball" the same day, "The question is, should he be the deputy chief of staff for policy under the current circumstances?"

Democrats have been more blunt. "It is totally unacceptable that anyone involved in the unauthorized disclosure of the identity of a CIA officer, including your Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, should remain employed at the White House with a security clearance," Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) wrote Bush yesterday.

[Vashner]

Bush is in an epic struggle against evil.. in many forms. While he is no perfect man he fights the good fight. A lot of people are starting to fall into the grips of evil....

The democrats want what Mohammed Atta wanted... down down BUSH down down USA... yes yes Saddam and long live Palastine..

Congrats.. you guys have hit a new low... not Bush...

Now please.. let our soldiers and president do there job and stop crying for once...

[ChumpDumper]

long live Palastine.Seeing as a Palestinian state was one of Bush's goals....

[Yonivore]

Seeing as a Palestinian state was one of Bush's goals....
Probably because he knew they'd self-destruct faster if he could secure them a homeland to fuck up and get them to leave Israel alone.

Gaza's turning out nicely, don't'cha think?

[ChumpDumper]

If the stae self-destructs, theyll just turn on Israel again. Yes Bush obviously wants it to fail.

[gtownspur]

^^so what! I could give a fuck about them. If palestine can't rule itself, then israel should drive them off to egypt regardless wether bush, santa clause, or jenny mcCarthy want the palestinians to fail or succeed.

[smeagol]

Bush is in an epic struggle against evil.. in many forms. While he is no perfect man he fights the good fight. A lot of people are starting to fall into the grips of evil....

The democrats want what Mohammed Atta wanted... down down BUSH down down USA... yes yes Saddam and long live Palastine..

Congrats.. you guys have hit a new low... not Bush...

Now please.. let our soldiers and president do there job and stop crying for once...
Amazing.

As soon as people criticize Bush, people like you come up with this nonsense.

Epic struggle against evil? The democrats want what Mohammed Atta wanted? Down down BUSH down down USA?

What a load of crap!

[SA210]

Ethics and Bush in the same sentence. :lmao :lmao :lmao

[Yonivore]

Ethics and Bush in the same sentence. :lmao :lmao :lmao
Nobody even tried to do that with Clinton.

[gtownspur]

Amazing.

As soon as people criticize Bush, people like you come up with this nonsense.

Epic struggle against evil? The democrats want what Mohammed Atta wanted? Down down BUSH down down USA?

What a load of crap!
^What's wrong with that. I can see how people can get illusioned to that when you have people like Proffesor ward churchill admitting that we deserved that. When you have people like ANSWER, who democrats have gone out and marched with, that claim that the U.S deserved 911. Wake up. You should quiet the clowns on your side.

[SA210]

Nobody even tried to do that with Clinton.

It always comes back to Clinton. :rolleyes :lol

[boutons]

"When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's time to make Clinton reference"

dubya's big problem is that when Clinton was being persecuted by Starr, his approval ratings were 60% (way too big to be ONLY Dems/Repug party line).

dubya's problems are compounded, probably fatally (lame duck), by the war and general mismanagement of the fed govt and of the country's direction pushing his DIS_appproval ratings to 60%.

dubya's swamp has many more alligators in it than Clinton's ever did.

[boutons]

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tt/2005/tt051111.gif