If Rove is indicted, Fitzgerald becomes the target. Runaway prosecutor and all. Cooper will be slimed, but it's clear that it won't be Cooper's testimony that makes the difference. Remember, once indictments issue, all this stuff will start playing out in public. There will certainly be witnesses aside from Cooper.
This is a smart prediction of the near future. Wilson and Cooper will vanish from the public eye along with Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and the Downing Street Memos, as the entire Republican machine will focus on defaming Fitzgerald.
UPDATE: TPMCafe has a whole thread on this subject entitled Rove Slime Machine Watch: "Help us chart the movements of the Rove Slime Machine. Have you seen media attacks on Matt Cooper and/or Patrick Fitzgerald?"
Final arguments began Tuesday in the Enron Broadband Services trial, with the prosecution telling jurors they got to see behind the scenes and under the rocks at Enron — a view carefully hidden from investors.
"You learned the inside story never matched up to the outside story," prosecutor Ben Campbell told the jury in U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's court.
On trial for the past 13 weeks are five former Enron Broadband Services executives accused of conspiracy and fraud in two schemes to fool investors and Wall Street about Enron's earning and technological capabilities. All five defendants testified that they did nothing wrong.
"We all know that money can corrupt people," Campbell said. "These five men lied for personal profit and professional advancement."
He said the simple motive was greed.
The inside story never matched up to the outside story. Seeing behind the scenes and under the rocks of a stage-managed narrative. Schemes to fool the people who want to support you.
Here's an old post from January 15, 2004 that I thought was worth revisiting, now that Karl Rove's crypto-Christian tactics (ahem, Schiavo) are failing as quickly as his criminal reputation grows:
Last night I was reminded of South Park Republicans while watching a rerun in which the following exchange takes place (Kyle is questioning Cartman's motives in starting a Christian rock band):
Kyle: But you don't know anything about Christians! Cartman: I know enough about them to exploit them.
I guess I never noticed Cartman's resemblance to Karl Rove before. Right down to his chinny-chin-chin.
Enron Corp. agreed to a $356 million settlement with about 20,000 current and former Enron employees who lost money in their retirement plans when the company collapsed in 2001, though they likely will see only a fraction of that amount.
[...]
However, it is likely that participants will get only 15% to 20% of the claim, said Lynn Sarko, an attorney with Keller Rohrback in Seattle who represented the Enron employees, as the final amount paid depends on the total amount of assets available for distribution in the bankruptcy court.
Quick review: Enron faked profits through a variety of schemes (including its participation in the California energy scam) to pump up its stock price and create imaginary wealth which it then used to become the the largest contributor to Bush-Cheney 2000. Enron executives participated in secret energy policy meetings with Dick Cheney a month after he took office, the minutes of which are still secret despite court challenges.
After Enron's demise, Bush-Cheney went on to a second term proposing a massive privatization of Social Security assets (read: benefit cut) which would essentially divide the massive Social Security insurance pool into millions of tiny 401(k)-like puddles of assets. Privatization is essentially the opposite of an economy of scale — smaller accounts mean more, not less, administrative fees that significantly reduce long-term return. The Bush crock was sold to the American people on the premise that it's your money and you ought to decide how to invest it no matter how ill-informed you are or how little you have to do with the management of the concerns in which you invest.
And now we learn that in an analogous scheme former Enron employees will get 15% of their own money. Not of possible future benefits — they will only receive 15% of the money they paid into the system.
Here it is: a preexisting model for Bush-style privatization, courtesy of his largest contributor. The result is an 85 percent loss within five years.
And after jacking her utility bills and taking her retirement money, the sad irony is that the Bushies won't even let Grandma Millie call Dr. Kervorkian.
(AP) - SAN JOSE, Calif.-Selling items on eBay Inc.'s online auction site is a pastime for some people, but for Ellen Lee it's a matter of paying for some of life's necessities.
Ellen, 59, and her husband, Peter, 57, worked as a nurse practitioner and family physician, respectively, until they retired in the late 1990s, with the goal of slowing their hectic lives. But when they needed health insurance, Ellen's pre-existing medical condition prevented her from getting affordable coverage.
The couple was already selling some books on eBay when their accountant asked if there was some type of business they could start to qualify for affordable health insurance offered to small-business owners. They set up a business in June 2001 to more formally sell items on eBay.
The Lees are part of a contingent of eBay sellers 55 and older who retired or were laid off from traditional full-time jobs and now sell online for income. The company doesn't have statistics about the number of sellers who fit that description, but spokesman Hani Durzy said eBay is seeing more of them attend classes the company sponsors on how to sell items.
