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Livingstone was the perfect [http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,6984,00.html patsy] for what happened next. Big, stupid, partisan, willing to make a fool of himself and loyal to the end, Livingstone was nearly the embodiment of the perfect Clinton surrogate.

Livingstone was the perfect [http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,6984,00.html patsy] for what happened next. Big, stupid, partisan, willing to make a fool of himself and loyal to the end, Livingstone was nearly the embodiment of the perfect Clinton surrogate.

   

   

That the files were illegally procured there is no doubt. That a [[DNC]] operative illegally downloaded copies to a flashdrive there is no question. That the files contained half-truths and innuendos, similar to the abuse the country suffered only two years earlier in the [[Clarence Thomas#Appointment to the United States Supreme Court|Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill]] hearings there is a near certainty;  that innocent lives and careers were affected for the coming decades is unquestionable. It was intended as the political equivalent of the [[Katyn massacre]]-a decapitation of the future leadership of the Republican party. Any White House staffers who served Presidents Reagan and Papa Bush who may think of running for Congress one day had to brace themselves for whatever lies and innuendo may be thrown at them publicly out of an FBI background check.<ref>http://fas.org/irp/congress/1996_rpt/fbirep.htm</ref>

That the files were illegally procured there is no doubt. That a [[DNC]] operative illegally downloaded copies to a flashdrive there is no question. That the files contained half-truths and innuendos, similar to the abuse the country suffered only two years earlier in the [[Clarence Thomas#Appointment to the United States Supreme Court|Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill]] hearings there is a near certainty;  that innocent lives and careers were affected for the coming decades is unquestionable. It was intended as the political equivalent of the [[Katyn massacre]]-a decapitation of the future leadership of the Republican party. Any White House staffers who served Presidents Reagan and Papa Bush who may think of running for Congress one day had to brace themselves for whatever lies and innuendo may be thrown at them publicly out of an FBI background check.<ref>https://fas.org/irp/congress/1996_rpt/fbirep.htm</ref>

In the end of coarse, no one was ever held accountable for the abuse and lives destroyed. But all fingers inside the White House and outside pointed at the new First Lady [[Hillary Clinton]] who was rapidly getting a national reputation for the use of dirty tricksters, private investigators, and outright thugs to harass, discredit, intimidate, and blackmail her perceived political enemies or those who stood in the way of her raw ambition for power.

In the end of coarse, no one was ever held accountable for the abuse and lives destroyed. But all fingers inside the White House and outside pointed at the new First Lady [[Hillary Clinton]] who was rapidly getting a national reputation for the use of dirty tricksters, private investigators, and outright thugs to harass, discredit, intimidate, and blackmail her perceived political enemies or those who stood in the way of her raw ambition for power.

==The [[Valerie Plame]] scandal==

==The [[Valerie Plame]] scandal==

John Dean, referred to as the "master manipulator of the cover up" of the [[Watergate scandal]] by the [[FBI]], who received [[immunity]] from [[prosecution]] in exchange for his testimony, was quoted on Salon.com [http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/10/03/dean/index_np.html 3 October 2003]: as saying,  

John Dean, referred to as the "master manipulator of the cover up" of the [[Watergate scandal]] by the [[FBI]], who received [[immunity]] from [[prosecution]] in exchange for his testimony, was quoted on Salon.com [https://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/10/03/dean/index_np.html 3 October 2003]: as saying,  

:''"I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people.  And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means."'',

:''"I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people.  And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means."'',

in regards to the [[Valerie Plame]] affair. Plame's CIA cover was blown as allegedly as political payback against her husband, former ambassador [[Joseph Wilson]], for an editorial he wrote in the [[New York Times]] criticizing the Bush Administration's claims about uranium exports from Niger.  

in regards to the [[Valerie Plame]] affair. Plame's CIA cover was blown as allegedly as political payback against her husband, former ambassador [[Joseph Wilson]], for an editorial he wrote in the [[New York Times]] criticizing the Bush Administration's claims about uranium exports from Niger.