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Thursday, July 14, 2005
Scandal in the West Wing
Posted by Bob BrighamWith all of the lies and stonewalling and covering up the Bush Administration is doing in the Plame scandal, I think it might be helpful to think of The West Wing when trying to understand who is being investigated and why. Here's how the fictional characters in the Bartlet Administration match up with their real world counterparts in the Bush Administration.
| POSITION | CAST | THE WEST WING | SUSPECTS | BUSH WHITE HOUSE |
| Chief of Staff |  | Leo McGarry |  | Andy Card |
| Deputy Chief of Staff |  | Josh Lyman |  | Karl Rove |
| Communications Director |  | Toby Ziegler |  | Dan Bartlett |
| Press Secretary |  | C.J. Cregg |  | Ari Fleisher Scott McClellan |
| VP Chief of Staff |  | Will Bailey |  |
Lewis "Scooter" Libby |
So play this out. Let's say there's an episode of The West Wing where Josh is accused of treason for outing an undercover CIA agent. In such an episode, we know some scenes that would be included. There would be the scene where Leo yells, "Get Josh in here" to find out why Josh got caught in such a petty political smear. There would be the scene with Tody prepping C.J. for the White House press briefing. There would be the scene where President Bartlett asks Leo what is going on. Will Bailey would be in the thick of things in the episode.
We know for a fact that at least one other senior Administration official is involved in the leak. Instead of asking which additional senior administration official is involved, I think we need to be asking if any officials are not involved.
When Scott McClellan lied about Karl Rove, it wasn't one man lying to the press corps – it was the White House, the Bush Administration, lying to the American people. Which senior administration officials were involved in the outing? which senior administration officials were involved in the cover-up? What did the President know and when did he know it?
This wasn't just Rove or McClellan, this was The White House.
Posted at 02:03 PM in Plamegate, Scandals | Technorati