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The Delirious Dr. Dean Steve Malzberg So there he was again, the chairman of the Democratic Party in another day at the office proving to the world, or to those who actually watch "Face the Nation," which I would imagine is significantly less than the entire globe, that he is out of control. Sunday's performance by Howard Dean was another classic in which he twice mistakenly said that the president cannot remain in office, when in fact he had been talking about the vice president.
The first time Bob Schieffer, the host of the show on CBS, corrected Dean; the second time he let it go. After all, this was Howard Dean, who has made a career out of exhibiting the frenzied excitement of delirium, so why bother? It all started when Schieffer asked Dean about Dick Cheney's claim made last week that national security will play a big part in the 2006 elections. The good doctor's eyes widened and he went to work. "As you know, there was testimony this week leaked from the grand jury that it may be the vice president that leaked security information in a time of war to discredit political opponents. I do not think the vice president has any credibility on national security whatsoever. I think he's in deep trouble."
The best friend the Republicans have ever had as DNC chairman continued, "If it turns out that Scooter Libby, who said this week that his superior ordered him to leak the information for political reasons, [is tellling the truth], then this vice president may not be vice president very much longer."
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Of course what Dean was attempting to talk about is the story that broke last Thursday in the National Journal. It revealed a letter from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Libby's lawyers in January stating that Libby had told the grand jury that his "superiors" had given him the green light to discuss the contents of The National Intelligence Estimate, which was done in October 2002, some ten days before the report was declassified. Apparently, while many like Joe Wilson were raising doubts about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, Libby spoke with N.Y. Times writer Judith Miller on July 8, informing her that the NIE found that Iraq would probably have a nuke during this decade. Ten days later the whole report was declassified. What Dean thought he was talking about was the "leaking" of the name of Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, who was a "secret" CIA spy. "The president promised two years ago that he would fire the leaker. He hasn't kept his promise and Karl Rove is still in the White House and he has security clearance. Now it turns out the vice president may have been responsible for those leaks for political reasons. ..." Later he continued to confuse the issue, "It's been alleged by Scooter Libby, who has been indicted for leaking information that his superiors ordered him to leak that information, his superior is Vice President Cheney. If that is true, Vice President Cheney cannot remain in office."
Luckily for the vice president, that is not true. First, Libby was never indicted for "leaking information." He was indicted by Fitzgerlad on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. Not leaking Valerie Plame's name. Not leaking anything. Second, as the N.Y. Times reported on Friday, "The prosecutor's note of Januray 23 [to Libby's lawyers] does not make any reference to Mr. Libby's involvement in the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity." So, after giving a totally inaccurate account of the entire Libby-Cheney situation, Doc Dean was asked just how he'd go about removing the vice president from office. "Well, I would suggest we have to find out if it's true or not. If it is, the president cannot remain in office." At that point Schieffer, who never once pointed out to Dean that he was getting the story all wrong, did interject "the vice president." I think Schieffer was enjoying Dean's delirious hallucination. When pressed again on how he would have the V.P. removed from office by co-host Elisabeth Bumiller, Dean again cautioned, "The first course of action I recommend is that we find out if this is true or not." And then, in a final example of Dean's delirious, frenzied, confused state that we Republicans love so much, he said, "But if it is true, then the president has to step aside." Just another day at the office for the good doctor. E-mail Steve Malzberg by going to his Web site at www.malzbergtalk.com You can sign up for his free e-mail alerts by going to www.newsmax.com/malzberg
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