Running Out the Clock

Reading the reports of the trial of Vice President's top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury, one is struck that the administration main concern in June 2003 probably was that the public would question their integrity and so their main goal was to run out the clock prior to the 2004 election.

Murray Waas in the National Journal wrote that Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration.

With no WMDs found in the months following the invasion of Iraq there were starting to be question raised about why the United States went to war. And when Joseph Wilson wrote on the New York Times Op-Ed page that the administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq, the administration felt they needed to fight back.

So in a supposed era of fighting terrorism the administration's plan was to end the career of a CIA agent by outing Mr. Wilson's wife. But rather than disparaging Joseph Wilson, the spectre of a criminal investigation was raised.

Yet the Bush administration, which came into office talking about restoring integrity and wanting to distance themselves from the Clinton administration, instead moved closer to the Nixon administration.

Faced with the prospect of the public turning against the war, which the public eventually did, the administration decided to "run out the clock" and push the results past the 2004 election with the idea that if they could win they could have a huge long-term impact on the country.

In that respect they were correct. By keeping the full details of why the US went to war and keeping the focus of the war away from the administration Bush was able to eke out a win in 2004 and were able to appoint two Supreme Court justices.

For all of Bush's bravado talk about his belief in democracy, he had no in interest in the American people being informed when they voted. After all Bush was able to "win" in 2000 by hoodwinking the public and in 2002 and 2004 was able to keep Republicans in power by keeping the public out of touch.