Massacre coming?

Nixon fired his Watergate special prosecutor 32 years ago this week

As members of the American public were snuggling in front of their televisions to new episodes of Emergency!, Mash, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Saturday October 20, 1973, Richard Nixon was busy engineering a silencing of independent Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Because Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus had the conscience to refuse Nixon's order to fire Cox, they resigned. The duty was left to the third in line, Solicitor General Robert Bork. In 1987, Bork finally was rewarded with a Supreme Court nomination -- even though it was rejected by a Democratically-controlled US Senate.

This week rumors have been flying over possible indictments coming down from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the Plame investigation. One rumor has it -- as promulgated by US News and World Report -- that Vice President Dick Cheney will resign as a result of the probe. (Can you say, ``Vice President Rice''??)

In Thursday's edition of Counterpunch, former intelligence professional Ray McGovern has an excellent, concise summary of the entire probe. (See 16 Fatal Words: Chickens Come Home to Roost on Cheney) McGovern adds this salient point that I do not see too many indictment-salivators in the blogosphere making:

Fitzgerald is at least as vulnerable as Cox was. Indeed, in recent days some of the fourth estate, Richard Cohen in the Washington Post and John Tierney in The New York Times, for example, seem to have accepted assignments to help lay the groundwork for Fitzgerald's dismissal.

Will the White House decide to fire special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and simply absorb the PR black eye, as Nixon did? There is absolutely nothing to prevent it. Can you imagine Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refusing on principle an order from President Bush?

This Bush impunity constitutes a huge difference with the Clinton prosecution engineered by the untouchable Kenneth Starr. And it's laughable to think that current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has one-tenth the conscience either Elliot Richardson or William Ruckelshaus had in 1973.

So the question is, will the plug be pulled on Fitzgerald before the veep goes down? Chances are good it will, McGovern thinks, if the investigation begins to reach that high -- towards Bush himself.