dickgate?

as the plamegate prosecutor's investigation moves closer to the veep's office, i've got to say my money's been on cheney all along.

see, he's got a big mouth—or loose lips, if you prefer. he likes to show off his insider knowledge.

back in 1990, after iraq invaded kuwait and international sanctions were imposed—ostensibly to pressure iraq to pull out—within a month defense secretary dick cheney went on the news saying—and i think i've got the quote pretty close, tho it has been 15 years—"war is closer than ever. saddam hussein is beginning to feel the effects of the sanctions." up till then everybody thought sanctions were meant to avoid war, but cheney let it slip that the real purpose was to soften up iraq for attack.

then it happened again 4 years ago. recall that gasoline prices had dropped in the late '90s. in new jersey they bottomed out around 85¢ a gallon in the spring of '99. then they began to climb—just about at the time g w bush announced his presidential candidacy. (i'll leave it to you to speculate as to whether oil companies did it to help their oilman buddy get elected. in any case, they helped bring on the recession of 2001.)

the price at the pump rose for 2 years. then, in early summer, the new vp got on tv and said the price was about to fall. he said he could tell from the futures market. sure enough, within a few weeks it began to drop. but the economic damage was done.

a year or so ago i heard bob novak say he's been friends with cheney since dick's first days in dc. that clinched it for me.

then again, my other top suspect has been rumsfeld—another bigmouth—but it doesn't look like i'm right on him.