Clogged Arteries

I have just finished reading Barton Gellman's splendid new book on the Cheney Vice Presidency, Angler. It is a compelling and chilling read.

Angler is the Secret Service code name for Cheney. It derives from his affection for fly-fishing in Wyoming. In the Ford Administration where he served as Chief of Staff for a time he was code named Backseat. I would have given him the code name Clogged Arteries.

Gellman gathers together all of the damning information we have picked up bit by bit over the years. He paints an overwhelmingly chilling portrait of a demonic man with firmly held beliefs who subverted our constitutionally based rule of law to carve out unlimited power for the executive and dance around statutory and constitutional limits on bad behavior.

There can be no doubt that a large handful of people inside the White House, the CIA, the NSA and the Department of Justice broke the law. There was a clear criminal conspiracy surrounding the issuance of unvetted Presidential orders on the treatment of detainees. And, it was all orchestrated by Clogged Arteries and signed off on by an incurious President.

Mark my words! There will be pardons issued by President Bush late on January 19, 2009, for as many as twenty people in his administration who run the risk of being criminally charged for their role in the conspiracy. Those pardons, issued before the charging or conviction of a crime will be similar to Ford's pardon of Nixon.

That will, however, not obviate the risk those people will face when they travel outside the United States. They will run the same risk as Pinochet when he was arrested for his Chilean crimes while in Europe. The Clogged Arteries cabal will travel internationally at great risk.

That won't affect Clogged Arteries. He is a short timer, and not just in the White House.