Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will start this post by thanking the many of you who have expressed concern for him after his last post.

To fill you all in a little bit… Your Maximum Leader’s life was even less fun after his post. His work situation isn’t ideal and he is looking. His best friend’s dad has had heart surgery. Two toilets in the Villainschloss are not functioning properly. And your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain spent all day yesterday in the hospital with the Wee Villain. He was diagnosed with a double ear infection last week. Somehow that condition has transmogrified into dehydration (although he was eating and drinking). So the Wee Villain was poked, prodded, and IV’ed for about 8 hours yesterday. He is doing much better at home today, but will likely see his pediatrician every day this week until his condition abates. Please keep the Wee Villain, and the BigHominid’s dad in your prayers.

In what might be the only update of this site today… Here are other stories….

Your Maximum Leader is sorry that he missed the DC area bloggers gathering on Saturday night. He hopes everyone understands and will invite him next time.

You should check out the latest from the Hatemongers. This is Third Annual Week of Loathing. The object of this week’s loathing is Sarah Vowell. She is on your Maximum Leader’s “list.” While he will not go so far as to say that she’d be “up against the wall” in the Mike World Order, she might be chained in a dungeon and forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh constantly. (Which frankly would be torture for just about anyone…)

It is sort of funny that the Hatemongers should pick the Christian observance of Holy Week to be their Week of Loathing. It is almost like we can loath this week while trying to repent our sins at the same time. Get all that bad juju out of our systems and then be resurrected on Sunday with a new clean (yet still appropriately misanthropic) world view.

Your Maximum Leader would like to comment a little bit on the Bush as Leaker-in-Chief post directly below this entry. The good Minister of Propaganda would, your Maximum Leader is sure, acknowledge that some of those quotations are taken a bit out of context. The President spoke those words in the context of who disclosed Valerie Plame’s name; not the leaking of information contained in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). So we are talking about two different things here. The first issue is who leaked Plame’s name. On that count it appears as though Scooter Libby is still on the hook for that - although it might not be a crime (since no one has been indicted for it). The second, related, item concerns the NIE. Not a single commentator or pundit has challenged that the President can declassify documents at his discretion. Indeed it seems as though every President in the modern era has done so. And when they have it has almost always been to do exactly what Bush has one - namely to address critics and defend policy.

Now where your Maximum Leader will admit to there being problems are these: 1)The Administration is still under investigation. Give a Special Prosecutor unlimited time and money (which they have) and they will get someone convicted of something. 2) The Administration’s claim to be a good steward of intelligence information and against leaking - in general - is greatly diminished. 3) The Wilson/Plame claims of being attacked by the Administration (or should one say counter-attacked) are obviously true.

Problems two and three are mostly image problems. In time they will wane and people will become disinterested. Problem one is the real tricky one - and the one that can’t be ignored. So long as Patrick Fitzgerald is out there investigating anything goes. One wonders if the President has the statutory authority to fire the Special Prosecutor (or if he can order the Attorney General to do so). If your Maximum Leader recalls all his Watergate history the President can order the AG to fire special prosecutors. Your Maximum Leader wonders if he shouldn’t just do so and take the hit. His poll numbers don’t have anywhere else to go. His stature with the rest of political Washington doesn’t seem to be that great too. If the Democrats take control of the House or Senate in the fall then he will be investigated (regardless of what happens to Fitzgerald). What is the real downside? You say that Fitzgerald has had the time and resources required to find out if a crime was committed in the case of leaking Plame’s name to the press. No charges have been filed in that count and the office should be closed. The country has years of experience with Special Prosecutors who have run amok in their investigations. In fact your Maximum Leader would argue that every Special Prosecutor has run amok in their investigations. Perhaps it is better end it now.

Anyho…

Your Maximum Leader will go now. He hopes to post something more later. But don’t wait for it.

Carry on.