I’m back writing about my pet peeve on eve of July 4th. Yes, we all knew Scooter (what adult is called Scooter) would not serve a day in prison. But I can dream.

Congress needs to bring our government back under the rule of law and the Constitution. Several people in the Bush administration outed an undercover CIA agent. This is treason no matter how one spins it and is a very serious crime against our country. I was listening to NPR this afternoon and someone from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal poo pooed Scooter’s crime as not serious at all, he was the fall guy, and Clinton (yes, it’s always Clinton) perjured himself and Sandy Burger, former CLINTON staffer, removed classified documents. Oh, and of course Valerie Plame was not undercover. The host on NPR did nothing to correct this right wing Bush apologist.

This just infuriates me. These insane rightwing talking points need to be burned and buried. There is no dispute that Plame WAS UNDERCOVER. This is not up for debate, discussion, nada zip. Plain and simple, just an indisputable fact.

Secondly, comparing Clinton’s lie about an extramarital affair to outing an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is dishonest and reprehensible. And Clinton went through the legal process of impeachment for it. We were subjected to the spectacle of the President of the United States being tried in Congress for lying about an extramarital affair with all the slimy voyeuristic detail (nothing like racing to turn off the evening news while your little preschooler asks what oral sex is). Of course the question should have never been asked by Ken Starr and was simply a set up. It had nothing to do with any of Clinton’s actions in government and no matter how one feels about adultery (I am against it), it’s not illegal (we couldn’t build enough prisons). Outing an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is.

Sandy Burger pled guilty and received a sentence from a judge in the case. He also went through the legal process for his faux pas. Comparing his actions to the Bush administration crime wave is ludicrous.

If Scooter was the fall guy, it was his choice. He could have done his duty as lawyer and officer of the court, as a government employee and as an American, and told the truth to the grand jury. If he was a fall guy, he was covering for one or more persons in the administration. Why not demand that Scooter stop covering their illegal activity?

The reason outing an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is a serious crime is that it puts agents in danger and ruins the elaborate ruses that the CIA sets up. Plame and the other agents she worked with overseas used a shell company that the CIA set up. Anyone associated with that company was and is in danger. It takes years to set up these fake companies and make them credible. Millions of dollars and a lot of years and COVERT agents down the tubes because the Bush administration is not about governing. It’s about mean, dirty, petty politics.

Now here comes the Argentina comparison (you knew it would eventually). Scooter was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice because he would not tell the truth to the grand jury. His sentence was commuted and he will probably be pardon because Cheney and Bush do not want justice unobstructed. That would be very bad for them. So before our nation falls further into the category of a third world dictatorship, Congress needs to follow the law and start impeachment proceedings. Specifically, the House Judiciary Committee needs to start the ball rolling for justice. The outing of an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is just one item on a list of many impeachable acts committed by the Bush administration.

We cannot allow these actions to go unpunished because the next rightwing extremist administration will escalate the level of crime they are willing to commit. We had a Congress during the Nixon administration willing to uphold their oaths of office and the Constitution. The problem was the pardon by Ford. Nixon was never held accountable,. So then we had Iran Contra under Reagan. The Watergate break in and cover up paled in comparison. But the arms and drug deals were swept under the rug, the convicted players were pardoned and a lot of the other players were not brought to justice. Lo and behold, they showed up in the Bush administration. So we have a lot of the same players from the Ford, Reagan and Bush I administrations wreaking havoc on a grander scale in current administration.

The current members of Congress need to be statesmen and bring our country back under the rule of law. They know that the actions of the Bush administration are impeachable offenses. They need to do the right thing, the just thing. Without our system of checks and balances, our laws and enforcement, we are not the great United States of America. We’re just another lousy dictatorship where regular people can be grabbed off the streets by government authorities never to be seen again and the rich and powerful act with impunity.

So call, write and email the members of the House Judiciary Committee to tell them to do their job. And have a great 4th of July. Happy Birthday America!

Update: Editor, I don’t know how to link this so I hope you’ll fix this with a link. (‘Tis done – editor)

Kagro X of Daily Kos has a post today that links to Charles Pierce at Media Matters. Pierce says it more eloquently than me. It’s the cancer of Iran Contra returning to invade our government. If we don’t excise it completely and then used very powerful chemo, it will come back and spread to invade every organ.