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Inside the bunker of President Bush

Sidney Blumenthal— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

ONE YEAR after his re-election, President Bush governs from a bunker. "We go forward with complete confidence," he proclaimed in his second inaugural address. He urged "our youngest citizens" to see the future "in the determined faces of our soldiers," to choose between "evil" and "courage." But as he listened that day, Vice-President Dick Cheney knew the election had been secured by a cover-up.

"I would have wished nothing better," declared Patrick Fitzgerald in his press conference of October 28 announcing the indictment of I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, the Vice-President's chief of staff, "that, when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004, witnesses testified then, and we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005. No one would have went to jail."

The indictment documents that Mr. Cheney confirmed the identity of Valerie Plame to him. The indictment also describes a figure called "Official A," subsequently disclosed to be Karl Rove, the President's chief political adviser, who informed Mr. Libby that he had told the conservative columnist Robert Novak of Ms. Plame's status. The next day Mr. Libby conferred with Mr. Cheney on how to handle the matter; that very day, Mr. Libby revealed Ms. Plame's identity to two reporters. Then Mr. Libby falsely testified that he had learned Ms. Plame's name from reporters.

On September 30, 2003, President Bush emphatically stated that he wanted anyone in his administration with information about the Plame leak to "come forward." On June 10, 2004, he pledged that anyone on his staff who leaked Ms. Plame's name would be fired.

When the Libby indictment was announced, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney praised him as a fine public servant. Still under investigation, Mr. Rove remains in the West Wing. But Mr. Cheney knew during the presidential campaign that he had discussed with Mr. Libby how to deal with Ms. Plame. Now Mr. Bush knows that Mr. Rove had enabled Mr. Novak to publish her identity. But the President's promise to fire officials is suddenly inoperative.

Mr. Libby's alleged cover-up was undertaken in the spirit of neoconservative Leninism. Any tactic is rationalised by the vanguard, which sets all policy and uses the party as its instrument. If he had testified truthfully in October 2004 the result would have consumed the final days of the campaign. His Leninist logic permitted him to protect the Republican cause, but he has tainted Mr. Bush's victory in history.

Mr. Bush took his 2004 win as a resounding mandate for a rightwing agenda. With each Right turn, however, his popularity declined. Iraq acted as an accelerator of his fall. His nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court was an acknowledgement of his sharply narrowed political space. While the Republican masses supported him, the Leninist Right staged a revolt. In Mr. Bush's cronyism and opportunism they saw his deviation. With the prosecutor's indictment imminent, Mr. Bush withdrew Ms. Miers. Broadly unpopular, he could not suffer a split Right.

Hostage to his failed fortune, Mr. Bush is a prisoner of the Right. His administration has become its own republic of fear. Mr. Libby's trial will reveal the administration's political methods. Mr. Cheney, along with a host of others, will be called to testify. "Disunity, dissolution, and vacillation" are hallmarks of "the path of conciliation," as Lenin wrote in What is to be Done. The vanguard on "the path of struggle" criticised for being "an exclusive group," must oppose any retreat proposed by the "opportunist rearguard." "We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire."

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