billmon on ForniGate aka Watergategate

* democracynow

"AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are together on this national broadcast for the first time. John Dean served as counsel to President Nixon. His latest book is Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush. And Dan Ellsberg, well, he released the Pentagon Papers, and his book is called Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. "

the first time? wow. did nobody ever think of that before? good work amy. make sure you catch it.

* billmon:

"Considered from one perspective, this clearly is a fiasco of world historical proportions -- spending 50% more than we did in Vietnam to lose in half the time. But there are two sides to every gestalt, and you can also argue that America's ability to dump $800+ billion into a hole in the desert without suffering a hasty financial and economic collapse (or even the kind of inflation seen during the Vietnam War) shows how enormously strong, and prosperous, the empire really is."

* more billmon:

As long as it's only a contracting scandal (with the added fillips of sex and spies) this really isn't much more than a surreal variation on standard operating procedure in Jack Abramoff's Washington -- even if the call girl angle does get the cable news juices flowing (so to speak.)

But it's at least possible that the intersection of sex, money and official secrecy will turn this story into something much more special. Who knows? Depending on how high the guest list goes for Wilkes's poker-and-prostitution soirées, this might even become the redneck equivalent of the Christine Keeler affair"

* more billmon:

"So what are we supposed to call this new scandal? Watergategate?
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Who else might have known about Porter's semi-alleged extracurricular activities, and what price would they have been in a position to charge for that information? And how would that price have been paid? The Cheneyites obviously put Goss at the agency because they believed he would be their loyal henchman (and he's certainly proved them right) but did they have the added security of knowing where, and with whom, their boy was spending his Saturday nights?"

* flashback to my feb post on foggo & goss:

"Also interesting is the way Foggo got promoted by Goss - 'astonishing', apparently. If you believe the worst about Porter Goss - for example Sibel's comments pointing to the fact that he was with General Mahmoud on 911, or Larisa's suggestion that Goss was one of the few 'chess pieces' put in place immediately after 911 - then we should probably ask similar questions about Mr Foggo.

I wonder whether Mr Foggo's logistics expertise in Europe had anything to do with arms and drugs smuggling..."