Cheney under oath?

Vice President Dead-Eye Dick Cheney is expected to be called to the stand this week by defense lawyers for his No. 1 aide/sacrificial lamb, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Some see a big deal about it being historic for a VP to testify, but oath smoath. He has been under oath from the day he took office, but it didn't stop him from lying when he said he knew Iraq had WMD and any number of other whale tales he's told, has it?

Law professor Peter Shane tells the Times that this week's trial could make "great theater." I'll watch it. I just won't necessarily believe whatever comes out of Cheney's lopsided mouth. I suspect Dead-Eye will answer every question with a nonanswer, probably using "national security secrets" as reason why he can't answer anything. Bets anyone?

UPDATE Feb. 13: Boo hoo. Libby's lawyers won't let Scooter on the stand and so won't call Cheney. Can you say "pardon deal made"? That was some subtle blackmail, wasn't it? There must have been something big to tell for Team Bush to hold out to the last minute.

UPDATE Feb. 15: Bush on his promise to purge his administration when he finds out who leaked classified CIA information, which we now know is Cheney and Bush, himself. "Not going to talk about it, Peter." "Think of another question and I'll recycle you, hee hee hee." His highness didn't "recycle" Peter (isn't recycle what we do with trash?) to allow him another question. Flashback 2003: "If there's a leak in my administration I want to know who it is. If someone committed a crime, he will be dealt with."

The nexis becoming clearer

The Chicago Tribune has published a thorough two-parter on the history of the nuclear industry. It's a fabulous backgrounder for anyone interested in Oyster Creek to file to Favorites.

As Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and nominally his boss, are now on trial for outing, nominally, CIA NOC Valerie Plame, it's a worth remembering that a week after Robert Novak's first story outing Plame, he wrote a second one specifically outing the CIA cover company she worked for: Brewster Jennings. Reports I've seen say Brewster-Jennings was tracking those lose nukes America gave to three dozen countries.

Isn't it handy now that Dick Cheney and George Bush have sent two battleships to Iran's coast and prepares to send a third, Brewster Jennings is in no position to dispute their claims that one crazed Iranian leader (democratically elected) wants to use the uranium we, presumably, gave him to build bombs?

As this story well describes, if Iran has nuclear bomb dreams, it wouldn't be the first. And others' plans were diffused without battleships.