Controversy, thy name is George

“Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

If there is one word that has been synonymous with the reign of King George II, it would have to be “controversy”. Controversy has surrounded this White House occupant in much the same way smog surrounds a California freeway, and from the days before His Royal Majesty (HRM) even saw his first coronation. For instance, it took five of the Royal Jesters from the Court of HRM’s father to certify a huge 514-vote victory in Florida, this out of over 5,800,000 votes cast.

To add to the controversy surrounding this election, as if this by itself wasn’t enough, HRM actually lost the overall popular vote in 2000, but was saved by the federal nature of presidential elections in this country. It isn’t the popular vote total that counts, after all, it is the electoral vote that puts you into office.

BTW, to be fair, had Gore been on the ball, he would have seen that he was losing his home state of Tennessee, and had he taken any sort of corrective measures, oh, say, point out that a Texan was not likely to do as much for this state as a native of Tennessee, he, not his opponent, would have been President, and without having the Supreme Court getting involved in that Florida mess at all.

Controversy continued to surround this President. It would not do to go into all the details that led this administration into the Iraq quagmire; the cherry-picking of intelligence, for instance, that HRM used to justify this war; or the expenditure of funds that threatens to exceed one trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000); or the loss of lives, over three thousand American service members killed, over 20,000 wounded; an unknown, but still very impressive number of Iraqi civilians as casualties, (many times the number of Americans and other nationalities killed on 9/11, and in a nation that had nary a thing to do with this attack); and, after all this, a situation in this war-torn country that is still far from being resolved.

Part of the controversy surrounding this war was in how HRM’s administration helped to stifle debate in this country. No one was allowed to question HRM’s stated reasons for invading this country without having their patriotism questioned. HRM refused to listen to voices of reason from his own cabinet, even, disdaining the advice from his Secretary of State, Colin Powell, for instance. Of course, Secretary Powell was not so convinced that he didn’t refuse the opportunity to make what turned out to be a specious case for the invasion in front of the U. N.

But of all the reasons given as justification for an invasion, the one in the State of the Union (SOTU) address in 2003, where the claim that HRM’s one-time nemesis, Saddam Hussein-who has, since, died while dancing (at the end of a rope)-was seeking yellow-cake uranium in the African nation of Niger for the express purpose of building a noo-kyoo-ler bomb, so he could “blow us up, real good!”, was, without a doubt, the most baseless. It turns out that the CIA knew before this SOTU was given, that this information was false, but it could not keep it from being included in this speech. How did it know? Simple. It investigated. Former Ambassador Richard Wison was sent to Africa, and found that this claim had no validity.

This did not set well with certain members of this administration, though, and some think that it was Vice President Dick Cheney (rhymes with weenie), all set to see a good war, who did his best to trash the reputation of Ambassador Wilson by implying that it was the Ambassador’s wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, who got him this plume assignment. Whoever it was, they seem to have forgotten that it was against the law to disclose the identity of a CIA operative, for what should be obvious reasons. More controversy.

This particular controversy, like a lot of controversies that arise in the mythical land of D. C., resulted in the appointed of a Special Prosecutor to look into just who it was that might have committed this heinous crime. The prosecutor, a good Irish lad by the name of Patrick Fitzgerald, finally, after an exhaustive probe, got one Lewis “Scooter” Libby, formerly Chief of Staff for Mr. Cheney, indicted, and convicted , not for his part in the disclosure of Plame’s identity, but for obstruction of justice, and perjury. In fact, Fitzgerald was so good that he convinced the judge in the case, Reggie Walton, who was appointed by HRM even, that the offense was so serious that it merited “serious” jail time, and that the jail time should start before “Scooter’s” appeal.

What the investigation didn’t do, what “Scooter’s” refusal to be more forthcoming did, was to shortchange the investigation, and in essence, it left a cloud of doubt surrounding Vice President Cheney. Many are those who believe that the “Scooter” fell on his sword, to save his one-time boss. What the jail time for “Scooter”-two and one half years- also did, was anger many conservatives enough to demand a pardon for “Scooter”. After all, who could stand idly by and watch an innocent youth with the un-presupposing nickname of Scooter be sent off to prison?

At any rate, the President decided to try and skip the controversy this time, in the best way he could. Instead of announcing a pardon for “Scooter” at a live press conference, HRM decided to take a page from our own Ernie Fletcher, (who announced a pardon during a hurricane) and gave Cheney’s fair-haired boy a commutation of his prison time in a written press release just prior to Independence Day (which will be celebrated from this day forth on July 2nd by the Libby family). And for those who wanted the full pardon, that is still within HRM’s prerogative, and could be forthcoming at a more auspicious date.

This will quiet the conservative voices who think the “Scooter” was victim of an unjust persecution, and it will also help HRM in his quest to set at least one record before his time in office is through, and that is to have the lowest approval ratings of any President ever. He has been in site of Nixon’s numbers for some time, and with any luck, this will help to cement his place in the history books, in at least one category.