1115.org

Don’t just take the fifth, old buddy. That’s so yesterday. And it doesn’t look like it’ll do you much good anyway. Not when the Bushies have designated you as the next big sacrificial goat. Really only two choices, I’m afraid, dear Paul. (Or do you prefer Paulie?) Start quivering like an aspen. Or negotiate a plea bargain. As this stage, even immunity may be available. But that possibility probably has a pretty short half-life.

Because all kinds of people who are supposed to know whereof they speak are saying that the Bushies are throwing (or have already thrown) poor Paulie under the bus.

Take this, from an “ABC exclusive” datelined Monday March 26:

The official, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, ignored White House Counsel Harriet Miers and senior lawyers in the Justice Department when he told the committee last month of specific reasons why the administration fired seven U.S. attorneys — and appeared to acknowledge for the first time that politics was behind one dismissal. McNulty’s testimony directly conflicted with the approach Miers advised, according to an unreleased internal White House e-mail described to ABC News. According to that e-mail, sources said, Miers said the administration should take the firm position that it would not comment on personnel issues.

Those who have been playing along at home will recall that well after the Bushies had produced “all the documents responsive to Congress’s requests”, they managed to find some more, and duly produced them last Friday, late in the afternoon. Internal White House emails were carefully not released, evidently because that’s the really damaging stuff.

What we now have is a leak of one of these carefully protected internal White House e-mails.

Does anyone in this country with an IQ greater than their age have any doubt whatsoever who decides which internal White House e-mails are leaked, and when, and to whom?

It’s always possible there are some people in that category who actually do have some doubt. But it’s a pretty safe bet that dear Paulie is not one of them. Because dear Paulie has reason to know, from the inside. So dear Paulie has to be pretty clear who is now doing what to him. And in full public view. All that dear Paulie has to decide is whether he wants to grin and bear it. And why.

ABC continued:

Until McNulty’s testimony, administration officials had consistently refused to publicly say why specific attorneys were dismissed and insisted that the White House had complete authority to replace them. That was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales‘ approach when he testified before the committee in January.

But McNulty, who worked on Capitol Hill 12 years, believed he had little choice but to more fully discuss the circumstances of the attorneys’ firings, according to a a senior Justice Department official familiar the circumstances. McNulty believed the senators would demand additional information, and he was confident he could draw on a long relationship with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, in explaining in more detail, sources told ABC News.

All Paulie’s fault, huh? He apparently come down with an fatal combination of stupidity and hubris. And brought down the whole effing house of cards.

Don’t you just hate subordinates who won’t do what they’re told? Who think they’re the only smart ones? They deserve everything they get, right?

Of course, it doesn’t matter a teensy weensy bit what you and I think. What matters is only what they think, the guys who decide which internal White House e-mails will be leaked, and when, and to whom.

So my advice, dear Paulie, would have to be: “Don’t hold it in. Just give it up.” Because holding it in is tantamount to giving up. To willingly placing your head on the chopping block, and telling the executioner: “Have a nice day, buddy!”

You want to go ahead and do that, it’s entirely your decision. But I really don’t think this administration is in the business of awarding sainthoods. They are only in the business of creating martyrs. And anyone who’s stupid enough to be willingly martyred for the likes of Gonzo and Rove and Bush fully deserves their fate, in my view.

So which will it be, dear Paulie? Surely you weren’t starting to get tired of your career?