Book 'Em All, Danno

The investigation into the CIA leak case is expected to be concluded by the end of the week, and indictments are expected. The investigation thus far has focused on White House advisor Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby. The question at hand is whether CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was deliberately leaked to the press in an effort to get back at her husband, Joseph Wilson, who had publicly questioned some of the evidence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Now comes word that Cheney himself gave Plame's name to Libby, who in turn may have leaked it to the press.

Personally, I don't see what the problem is. If Wilson had the audacity to question the Bush Administration's motives, he must be an unpatriotic commie. Heck, he should be shipped off to Guantanomo Bay and force to participate in the annual naked human pyramid tournament!

This renewed focus on the legitimacy of the war comes at a bad time for Bush since the total of American troops killed just hit 2000 earlier today.

Unfortunately for the Republicans, the scandals don't end there. New evidence has surfaced in the investigation of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's questionable stock sale a few months ago. Frist, who is a heart surgeon and world renown expert on diagnosing brain damaged patients via videotape, ordered the sale of all his shares in his family's medical business shortly before the release of a bad business report. The problem is, however, that those shares were supposed to be in a blind trust, so how would Frist have known whether he even owned any shares? He claims it was purely a coincidence.

New documents, however, indicate that Frist was routinely informed of stock sales and purchases by the trustees. If true, this would defeat the purpose of a blind trust and raise serious ethics questions, as well as potential conflict of interest issues.

Then there is the ever lovable Tom DeLay, who was the House majority leader until his indictment a few weeks ago on money laundering charges. Last week he was booked and fingerprinted in Houston, which always looks good on the six o'clock news. But that's okay, because DeLay is now out on bail and back in Washington writing laws the rest of us have to follow.