Editorial: More turmoil for Bush

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.

A growing number of Americans are outraged over Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, gas prices and Social Security. And President Bush's core supporters -- including fiscal and religious conservatives -- are still upset over his now-withdrawn nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. They also criticize his big spending and his perceived inaction on border security.

The indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, however, could prove to be the biggest crisis yet for the White House. Libby was more than Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. As the vice president's national security adviser, he was a fixture at national security meetings. He was also a solid member of the president's inner circle.

Long a proponent of pre-emptive strikes at other countries suspected of possessing weapons of mass destruction, Libby strongly influenced Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

Libby resigned Friday moments after he was indicted on five counts of thwarting a federal grand jury's investigation into the source of a leak that resulted in public disclosure of an undercover CIA officer. An indictment is not a conviction, so Libby is presumed innocent. But the charges against him are serious: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making a false statement and two counts of perjury. He could face a lengthy prison term if found guilty.

The charges were brought following a nearly two-year investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. During a press conference Friday, Fitzgerald said the grand jury found that Libby lied under oath about how and when he learned of the identity of Valerie Plame, the CIA agent, and that he misled the grand jury about what he said to reporters. Libby is not being charged with illegally leaking Plame's name, but with trying to cover up information needed by investigators.

Whoever leaked Plame's name in 2003 had a political reason. At the request of the CIA, her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, had checked into a British report that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger in 1999. His 2002 report discounted the allegation. When Bush used the British information anyway, in his 2003 State of the Union address justifying an invasion of Iraq, Wilson went public with his findings.

The intent of leaking Plame's name was to discredit Wilson by intimating that he was chosen to research the report because of nepotism rather than genuine qualifications. In fact, he was exceptionally qualified, as he had served in both Africa and Iraq during his diplomatic career.

The Libby indictment signals grave turmoil ahead for the White House. It will lead to more questions about why there was such an aggressive attempt to discredit Wilson, and who else was involved. And those questions will lead to more intense scrutiny of the reasons behind the Iraq war. It will take a miracle for Bush to be anything but on the defensive for the rest of his second term.