With today's
big news about Cheney being Libby's source in mind, it's now time to fully ponder what happens next with ol' Dick. Many voices in left blogovia have already expressed skepticism that Cheney could or would be indicted, expecting at most that he would be named as an unindicted co-conspirator -- just like a famous
Dick from an earlier generation.
But Nixon is not Cheney's precedent -- Spiro Agnew is. And here is where the irony gets delicious.
(More below the fold.)
For our younger readers who may not remember, Agnew was Nixon's VP until he was forced to
resign under pressure after getting caught in a web of bribery and tax evasion. While the Agnew scandal raged, but before he resigned, Nixon's solicitor general prepared a brief on whether a sitting VP could be brought up on criminal charges:
A brief from the solicitor general argued that, while the president was immune from indictment, the vice president was not, since his conviction would not disrupt the workings of the executive branch.
The irony? Nixon's solicitor general was, of course, Robert "Martyred Wingnut" Bork.
So here were are today, with a veep seemingly guilty as hell of criminal conspiracy and perjury, likely to face indictment and criminal trial due in no small part to an opinion written by the patron saint of wingnut persecution complexes. Will Cheney turn openly on Bork? Will Bork turn on himself? Will Cheney flip like the asphyxiating fish he is and turn on Bush? Stay tuned and invest in Pop Secret!
But most of all, rest assured: even if the sitting President is off-limits, the sitting VP has been determined to be vulnerable to criminal prosecution. No need to wait on Congress for this one.