I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Congressional sources say there may also be calls for the appointment of an independent investigation to determine if Bush administration officials blew Plame’s cover.
Change "may" to "will." And then, do it.
Where are the conservatives calling for Novak's head for putting "hey, I need a tidbit to juice up my column" ahead of national security?
Meanwhile, I'm starting to see this meme popping up from conservatives: "What makes you think that having a Democrat in the White House is going to improve the situation in Iraq?"
My response: If you hire a person who burns down your office, hiring a person to replace the arsonist isn't going to put out the fire. BUT YOU SHOULD STILL DAMN WELL FIRE THE ARSONIST!
(CBS) It was an embarrassing mistake when White House officials admitted that there was an inaccuracy in President Bush’s State of the Union address, but now, the fallout from that mistake could lead to criminal charges, CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston reports.
As Blanche Dubois put it, "Sometimes there's God so quickly..."
Regarding the Post story, why do I think the "senior administration official" is Rove throwing two flunkies to the wolves?
Of course, in a perfect world, the official is Powell sticking it to Rove and Rice...
Um, look what's repeated in the WaPo article:
Wilson, while refusing to confirm his wife's occupation, has suggested publicly that he believes Bush's senior adviser, Karl C. Rove, broke her cover. He said Aug. 21 at a public forum in Seattle that it is of keen interest to him "to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."
Karl C. Rove.
What's important here is that a "senior administration official" is acknowledging TO A REPORTER that he or she knows that two other White House officials "leaked" the information on Valerie Plame to reporters. It's fairly inconceivable that this senior administration official does not know who those two others are, and does not have excellent evidence as to their identities.
Why is this important? Because it is nearly inconceivable that this senior administration official is subpoenaed, that he or she will subject himself or herself to charges of perjury or obstruction of justice simply to save the hides of the very people he or she is now exposing to the press.
Please, please, PLEASE let it be Rove and Ari. The best part is that they seem to be turning on each other.
Selah.
Two, as in more than one?
Delicious.
am i wrong to rejoice in others’ misery? oh, sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
this one’s going to the fbi.
Take a look at the wording here:
The official would not name the leakers for the record and would not name the journalists. The official said he had no indication that Bush knew about the calls.
What an odd sentence structure. Note it isn't "...would not name the leakers or the journalists for the record."
Who wants to take bets that, off-the-record, the Washington Post knows the names?
I can hardly wait for the other "journalists" to own up to what they apparently have known all along.
they shopped this to a lot of journalists. They all know the names.
Hunter, your conclusion is indeed the clear implication of that sentence.
condi’s going on russert tomorrow. this ought to be beautiful, beautiful like my ass or a trainwreck.
Criminal charges and an independent investigator make all the rest of the Bush subterfuge fair game. It shows a pattern, after all.
the whole administration needs be in orange jump suits
This is delicious. I hope the story keeps its legs.
Let's see. . which organizations were those 6 journalists affiliated with?
My guesses:
Mother Jones
The American Prospect
The BBC
The Guardian
Le Monde
Salon
Any counterguesses?
"they shopped this to a lot of journalists. They all know the names".
The question then becomes:
What ambitious eager-beaver wants to establish his/her reputation as a defender of the Republic, and cash in on the notoriety attendant on being the first to tell all?
And not necessarily in that order, either.
Orange jump suits ARE appropriate for the fall season.
they shopped this to a lot of journalists. They all know the names.
Yes, but let me clarify... this isn't the reporters confirming among themselves what they already knew... this is a White House official who just said the names.
Somebody just turned.
will we all be having a happy schadenfreude christmas?
What ambitious eager-beaver wants to establish his/her reputation as a defender of the Republic, and cash in on the notoriety attendant on being the first to tell all?
IMO, they can't come forward... if they went public with a confidential call, they'd never get leaked to by anyone in Washington, from any party, ever again. It'd be career suicide. That's why this coming from inside the White House is so important.
As of now (11:21 pm EDT) abcnews.com: nothing. cnn.com: nothing. faux news: nothing. They'd better get busy.
Karl and Ari.
Please God.
The thought of a $50,000 fine (easily covered) and 10 years(?) in the slammer (yikes!) must be causing one or two people some sleepless nights.
YES! Finally, I believe there is a breach in their defenses! Time for a little celebratory dance! Well, ok, maybe just a little song:
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay,
My, oh, my, what a wonderful day.
Plenty of sunshine headin' my way,
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
Mister Bluebird's on my shoulder,
It's the truth, it's "actch'll"
Everything is "satisfactch'll."
"Yes, but let me clarify... this isn't the reporters confirming among themselves what they already knew... this is a White House official who just said the names.
Somebody just turned".
Hunter.. I understand. My remark adressed the fact (in light of the "senior administration official's" confirmation that the leak emenated from within the inner sanctum), whatever compunction the individual reporter's felt not to report what they know is gone.
Isn't it?
Anyone read Friedman in the NYT yet? He has a new colloquialism I just love:
[B] deeply morally unserious [/B]
You may recognize it in its more common form; lying your ass off.
Zig: "Karl and Ari. Please God".
When you pray, why not pray BIG?
"Cheney and the Rumster. Please God".
Observer, my thoughts exactly. What's wrong with Novak that of the 6 journalists given this information, he's the only one who saw fit to make it public?
Friedman can't say 'lying your ass off.' He doesn't want to sound shrill.
Pie
It's not just the fine or the potential jail term - it's also the fun of being the target of a federal investigation. As we saw when Starr was dragging everybody in Arkansas into court to testify about Whitewater, dealing with subpoenas and defending your legal position can cost six figures and up, per person.
If Rove could be a) tied up in a legal defense and then b) removed from the scene, it's almost better than having something against Shrub. Remember that Rove is the political brains behind the campaign. With him out, Shrub would be on his own. And a Shrub-run campaign would be a train wreck just like all his other ventures.
Oops, html is getting funky tonight. Try that again.
Sophie: OK, so Condi goes on Tim Russert Sunday morning, but don't expect a grilling. I mean, please. This is the same Tim Russert who is basically a codependent enabler of the administration's constant lying.
But overall, I agree with the schadenfreude everyone else is feeling. Yipppeee! I just pray that the press finally begins to do its job. We'll see if any of the morning shows really bites. Howard Dean is on CBS tomorrow morning, and he's already raising a stink about it.
I think a lot of readers would benefit from a glossary of exactly who would be identified as a "senior administration official" and who would be called a "top White House official." I imagine the former is a short list of recognizable names and the latter is more a sort of miminum title threshold.
This has come up before -- it would be extra nice if the explainer were easily accessible in the future as well (link on the front page, etc).
S. E. -- Don't know. Like I said above, outing a source -- even if it's one that you don't expect to ever use again, and even if it's one who was leaking things illegally -- strikes me as a risky option if you plan to keep being a beltway reporter. I'm betting they clam up tight, no matter what happens.
I doubt the second leaker was Ari (too far down the food chain). I'd guess Card.
Sophie: OK, so Condi goes on Tim Russert Sunday morning, but don't expect a grilling.
that lady sweats like an eatbeast under the laziest of softballs. i mean, she looked shady on fox fucking news circa the sixteen-words bit and under brit hume’s gentle ministrations, no less. plus, timmy, one would think, is obliged to broach the subject, being that his network first ran with it.
Could I have some more butter, please?
Question- is "top White House official" a term of art like "senior White House official" that has a definite meaning?
Tater wrote:
"Anyone read Friedman in the NYT yet? He has a new colloquialism I just love:
[B] deeply morally unserious [/B]
You may recognize it in its more common form; lying your ass off."
That jumped out at me too. He's pathetic.
In case anyone was wondering, Ari's last day on the job was the day the Novak column appeared. I can't see any reason the two things would be linked, but at least it shows that Ari's tenure did last through the time in question.
My favorite quote from the story is: "The official said he had no indication that Bush knew about the calls." I want to hear the question shouted at Bush as he is running for Marine One.
Mithras
Fables of the Reconstruction
Heh heh heh, Trout ....
The ol' Last Tango reference 
And now we get to all play "Who Leaked the Leakers?"! At the top o' the boards tonight:
- Has the fight between the team of Condi, Cheney, and Rummy and the hard-luck boys Powell and Tenet's CIA just got kicked up a notch, with an inside-the building tattle that will soon be pasted on the front pages, screwing one side or the other for once and for all?
- Time to sell out old pal Ari, since he ain't there anymore so who the heck needs him? But let's see, that's only one -- who else is about to take time off to visit family? Who told Ari? Who was in a position to even know Plame, a random, low-profile beaurocrat, was undercover CIA?
- Has Card or Rove lost the magic, having authorized an illegal scheme that backfired? Has the White House authorized someone to toss one or both of them overboard, as chum for the circling reporters?
- Is there a lone Deep Throat with a conscience? Is such a thing even possible, in this White House?
Any other bets on the table? Get 'em on the table, ya pays yer money and takes yer chances...
Glory be. Are the scales finally falling from Freidman's eyes, at long last?
I'm not sure I buy the 'two people' thing.
Someone higher up told those two people to do it. "You call three people, and you call three people".
If it's two underlings, I bet they work for Rove.
If it isn't two underlings, and they did it on their own, it was probably Rove and Cheney.
Does Tenet count as a senior administration official? 'Cause he's the only one I would imagine would be willing to push the knife this deep. Otherwise it's gonna be MIGHTY interesting to see who it is.
One thing you don't learn in polisci class:
NEVER fuck the CIA. Never.
Jake
One name - Powell.
SHUT UP all of you...no, wait, oh? It was only "Talk Like Bill O'Reilly" DAY, not WEEK?
Never mind.
I second the weird wording alert, this time in the WAPO:
The official would not name the leakers for the record and would not name the journalists.
Note the "for the record" part of that sentence. The implication is that they were willing to say who it was OFF THE RECORD. In other words, WAPO knows who the two leakers are.
It's a matter of time before they out them.
I want to howl like Michael Jackson, in a good way.
Wups! Hunter beat me to it! Good job!
Well I'd love to see them all run out of town on a rail. But according to John Powers in a piece written before this thing broke smart money is saying that Cheney is overdue to take the fall.
My money's on Jake: Tenet is the only one that makes sense.
it is fascinating to witness this apparent turning within the administration. remember when the media was bragging, not so long ago, how much "tighter" this administration was, in regard to leaks, than previous admins were? it was attributed to various reasons, such as greater sense of professionalism, loyalty, seriousness, etc....it's rather delicious to now witness this...
unfortunately, I fear they're gonna skate on this, as they always seem to do....I sure hope I'm wrong, and that this turns out to be investigated thoroughly, and featured prominently in the media...but I fear the media doesn't have the guts to do so, primarily because they're controlled by corporate interests in cahoots with the administration...but as many others have pointed out in related posts, the irony is, for a cable network like MSNBC or CNN, that this is an opportunity that could set themselves apart from Fox and the rest, and garner higher ratings...but this is apparently all lost on them...
my guess is that some of the other journalists/columnists they shopped this to are Krauthammer, Barnes, and Hume....has anyone heard Novak make reference to this affair, since he revealed Plame was a CIA operative?
Holy Crap
That's all I can say.
BushCo is about to implode. Seriously implode I say.
About damn time...
I agree. Pass the damn popcorn. Lets all get some snacks, dim the lights and get ready for the show.
BTW. Has any of the other candidates made a call for an investigation as of yet? Besides Dean? Going through them now...
As of 9 PST, only Dean has anything about this.
The other candidates need to get their ass in gear. Pronto.
CBS radio news has just reported this story in their network report at the top of the hour. Its inclusion in a news summary means that it's a top story for them.
Karl Rove was mentioned by name in the news report as the most likely source of the leak, according to, as they put it, most analysts familiar with the incident.
When you pray, why not pray BIG?
"Cheney and the Rumster. Please God".
Upon a few minutes reflection, what might transpire if Bush himself (as is quite likely) was aware of this leak?
Could he reasonably cite the perogatives granted him in the name of national security as sufficient reason to let sleeping dogs lie?
Given that the 'senior administration official' made a point of stating it was an act of political revenge, that doesn't seem likely.
So just "what did Bush know, and when did he know it?" becomes a reasonable, pertinent question.
Did he possess the simple curiousity to inquire of his staff, when the story broke, if any of them were responsible? At that point, was he lied to?
Or was he told the names of the leakers at that time, and acqieced in their having done so?
And if he did aquiece, did he at that moment commit an impeachable offense?
Wow. The prospect of someone in the White House actually being held accountable for doing something horrible. It's almost like the world is becoming... rational.
Felicitations to all on this happy occasion.
Huh, how is it possible that mighty Drudge has missed this incredible scoop (as of 11pm CDT anyway)? I mean, surely he's eager to report it and all... (cough)
Sovreign Eye, I like your logical progression. Impeachable offense indeed.
Odds on who is in the list of two:
40% - Ari
30% - Powell
30% - Rove
30% - Card
20% - Rice
15% - Cheney
10% - Wolfowitz
25% - Who am I missing?
Drudge has has the story up for a couple hours.
The question here is why doesn't Bush care that one or two of his administration did this to an intelligence agent and why doesn't this breech of a national secuity matter interest him in the least when remember how Cheney told the FBI to investigate the intelligence committee for a leak?
Bush sure allowed that little episode to be acted on quickly but just not when it's one of the Bushies own staff that does such a national security breech.
Just another item of proof that junior isn't really running the show. Bush is just the presidential face.
Hey maybe it was old "W" himself that leak this matter-that would explain a lot since W is such a visceral hate kind of guy. Bush doesn't get along with anyone.
Another "senior administration official" that would make sense as the WaPo source: Ashcroft. No, I'm not in Bizarro World, that would just be the signal that Bush had decided to jettison Rove.
Or maybe I am in Bizarro World....
this is by far the best blogging/commenting going on about this thing. i've been frequenting some conservative blogs, too. they don't wanna touch it.
good work everyone.
Karl Rove was mentioned by name in the news report as the most likely source of the leak, according to, as they put it, most analysts familiar with the incident.
Which confirms my earlier theory - Rove's throwing two flunkies to the wolves to save his own ass.
Chris/tx: "Top white house official" (and logic) means not Powell or Wolfowitz -- it's a political move, not a policy move. The 2 are political appointees (Rove or someone under him, Card or someone under him) or (at best) Cheney or Rice (unlikely).
Don'cha just love it when people stumble on their own hubris?
Get a grip, Bill Brock. Ashcroft? In. Your. Dreams. That guy's prepping for The Rapture 24/7. No time for leakin'!
I meant to say that CBS radio said that Rove was likely the person who outed the agent, not the person who leaked to the Post.
Ari makes sense-
"Out of sight, out of mind."
Remember how he bailed?
Who is the deadwood that Dubya would like to get rid off now, a little over a year before elections? Would that be Powell, to take a siesta with the family? Or maybe Rove, to show he is not just a puppet? Rummie, he looks like he has wondered off the plantation a little. Even old Dick, not much for the Rep's past 2008.
globecanvas - Thanks for clarification. The nuances of journalism that got Gilligan/BBC in trouble.
Dave, my natural pessimism on these things makes me think that you are probably right; but then, Rove would have to explain how this took place on his watch, and it seems like his style is to try to bury something like this rather than let it play out. (Technically speaking, I guess, it's Card's watch, although nobody seems to credit him with anything.)
For what it's worth, my money on the source for the Washington Post story is Cheney. I think giving up the leakers is part of a deliberate move to try to short-circuit whatever the CIA is hoping to accomplish. A deeply political decision like this one - to break omerta - has to be approved by the top guy, and that's Dick.
I suggest that the two White House officials who made the calls outing Valerie Plame were Karl Rove and Andy Card. Whoever leaked this information to the WaPo is a hero, IMHO.
Drudge had it up as a headline (no flashing light as one may have expected), but replaced it with "No Nukes" - there are 2 links the MSNBC and Time stories, but that's it so far.
Today was the day that Drudge jumped the shark.
When I first heard that the CIA requested an investigation, I was sure Ashcroft would bury it.
In my dream world, the confirmation by a "senior offical" is some administration guy with some shred of integrity doing something to make sure that there is an investigation. Since I don't really think there's any such thing as a Bushie with a shred of integrity, I'm leaning towards the hypothesis that it's Rove setting up some fall guys.
Question is, will those fall guys feel that they've been sufficiently paid off to be worth spending 5 years in the clink to save Rove (or whoever's) ass?
I think I'm actually going to have to get up early tomorrow to watch the talk shows.
And guys, that feeling's not schadenfreude. It's the warm, tingly anticipation that justice might be done. Well, and maybe a little bit of schadenfreude
Whatever answers they come up with, we should question them! Whatever answers they come up with, we should question them! Whatever answers they come up with, we should keep questioning them! We know that some of these assholes have lied under oath.
Rove is far too important to Shrub for there to be any serious thought of his being dumped over the side at this point. Ditto Cheney. They'd need to be in a desperate situation before they'd voluntarily jettison either one.
Also, IMHO Ari's name doesn't belong in this discussion. He was not part of any inner circle; he was just a convenient mouth to speak the lie-of-the-day. We may have seen a lot of him, but he was never that important to to truly powerful players in this WH.
The operative WH strategy at this point will be stonewall stonewall stonewall. Giving an inch isn't in these guys DNA.
Yeaaaaaa!!!! It's gonna stick! It's gonna stick! It's gonna stick! It's gonna stick! It's gonna stick! It's gonna stick! I can just FEEL it!
Combine the latest investigation encouraged by the CIA, with Powell's statements about having disarmed Saddam back in 2001, and with Blair on the verge of resignation after his own smear efforts resulted in the Lord Hutton hearings, and you've got a classic situation of "blood in the water, and sharks arriving on the scene".
Will the media frenzy?
Cheryl: "The question here is why doesn't Bush care that one or two of his administration did this to an intelligence agent and why doesn't this breech of a national secuity matter interest him in the least when remember how Cheney told the FBI to investigate the intelligence committee for a leak"?
Indeed, and well put.
It can't just be flunkies. No random White House flunkies, especially anyone under Rove's political arm, is going to know who is or is not undercover CIA. And if they do, that's even bigger news.
There are several separate criteria here. First, whoever leaked this had to do enough digging to find out that Wilson's wife was undercover CIA. That's not something that she wears a nametag for -- did Plame ever brief the White House, or was she too low-level for that? It was either someone who knew her, or someone with enough clearance to find out about her. That doesn't narrow it down very much, but it does eliminate random White House grunts.
Second, it requires someone(s) with enough savvy and knowledge to know six reporters -- of the right ideology -- to shop this to. You'd pretty much have to have a prior relationship with those reporters, I think. How many people in the White House have a rolodex like that?
Third, it's obviously not going to be Bush, or even Cheney -- they don't sit up at night calling newsreporters with hot steamy tips. That's not the way stuff like this gets "officially" leaked.
And it was "officially" leaked, we know that.
Will the media frenzy?
I think the public, with pitchforks, will insist, don't you?
Well I'd love to see them all run out of town on a rail. But according to John Powers in a piece written before this thing broke smart money is saying that Cheney is overdue to take the fall.
David Ehrenstein | Email | Homepage | 09.28.03 - 12:08 am |
Haloscan ate your URL. To read the John Powers article, try this link or use this URL:
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/4...5/on-
powers.php
Cheryl, don't assume that President Bush didn't know about it. That is wasn't an ad hoc coordinated media strategy. If you haven't figured it out by now, Bush is not a nice guy.
I don't remember the exact scenario, but a professor at Texas A&M caused his department to be almost sanctioned for calling Bush's dad an "inept" debater, when queried by news reporters.
His name is James Aune, and he wrote of this affair in his book Selling The Free Market - The Rhetoric of Economic Correctness.
musing, my money is on the frenzy. hot and heavy. pure political porn. the discussion we should have had before the war, but we're having it clearly after.
though there's even more incriminating information now to make the case. before, there was always a little doubt. now, only a fool would blind himself to this pattern strung dazzlingly before us.
Yo-
Check out the latest on Calpundit.
Good day!
Hunter: ("And it was "officially" leaked, we know that".
Agreed. So, if Bush was in cahoots with the leak, shold/must he therefore be impeached?
"What did he know and....."?
W. Bush was governor and supposedly personally met with Texas A&M over Aune's statements. It's in the book. I'm sure W. was livid about Aune's being a Marxist as well. A Marxist rhetoric professor in Texas - there must be a law against it!
(to give context, Aune is a Marxist, though it hardly effects his rhetorical scholarship. he also very capably expounds on how conservative fellowships and donors are "buying" libertarian programs at various universities - to the point of paying students to go to free market-oriented economics classes - causing in one instance a university, UCLA, to actually cancel a class because of the shady money behind and promoting the subject matter)
Mithras, that sounds like rational (if desperate) damage control, but this administration has never resorted to anything like damage control, or retreat, or apology. When pushed, they push back harder. They bully and they accuse, via their ideological conspirators in the media, any who dare question Dear Leader's regime.
My prediction - Tenet or Ridge is responsible for the current leak. Rove is likely responsible for outing Plame in the first place, but he won't go down for it, at least not hard. He may be forced to resign, but he knows he only has to run the clock until Nov 2004. Win, lose, or draw, he'll get his pardon then. And, to do his real job he doesn't need an official WH position. He can run a campaign from behind the scenes easily enough.
Then they take Cheney down. He's done his job, funnelling billions to Haliburton, and rewriting energy policy to suit Enron, so he's not terribly useful right now - plus he's no longer needed as the "adult" on the ticket. Bush is the incumbent, he doesn't need daddy's people to lend the (false) aura of respectability. They jettison him in time for the 2004 election, so they can replace with a younger VP who might have a chance in 2008 if Bush manages to get reelected. Cheney goes back to making a mint at Halliburton and, like Rove, just waits for his pardon.
As the final act in our play, the leaker is forced out for disloyalty, in what turns out to be a profoundly stupid move by the Bushies. Whoever it is obviously knows where the bodies are buried.
As thrilling as this is - that the Bush Admin. might be brought to justice for committing a crime - let's not forget that a CIA operative had her career ruined and her sources had their lives endangered. That's a pretty awful price to pay.
Whenever the CIA has been attacked by the White House in some way, they have responded by embarrasing the Administration by leaking a report undercutting them. Tenet's behind this.
Impeachment, n. A fair and balanced process for testing the integrity of elected officals, drawing its evidentiary principles from the practice of lynching and its procedural rules from the game of bingo.
I know that a lot of people in the regime like sports, and I sure hope they have a good time playing this fun new form of entertainment. The rules will be familiar to them, which will surely be an advantage, and add to the excitement.
Karl in the library with a candlestick!
just a guess....
libdevil
I don't agree that if Rove goes down it'll be a soft landing. Anybody who gets stuck with this thing is going to do time, IMHO. And they'll be radioactive for some while, too. No way they can have Rove running the campaign from prison, or even while he's standing trial.
Snorfbat: Thanks for the link to the Powers article. Great writing! LOL at "the eery Cheney." Too right.
Rove?
That fat little prick will sing like a bird.
Also, take a look at what the WaPo story has confirmed. The source has told us that the leak was intentional, and meant to be an intimidation job.
That's a critical bit of information, because it implies that this third administration official is in a position to know that. Which puts a squash on any claim of a "rogue operation" by these two "senior administration officials". We know that at least three Administration officials are in the loop -- and that one of them disagreed with the original smear, or is at least saying so now.
Three top administration officials? Someone with enough savvy to know where to shop the story? Someone with enough resources to dig up who is or isn't covert CIA? Someone else who can confirm the reason that the other two made the intentional leak?
This ain't flunkies. And either the White House has decided to give one or two Big Someones a push, or there is a lone official who's secretly turned. This is f***ing huge.
To find out what happens next, we wait for Condi on MTP. She's going to be asked about the WaPo report, in which a "top administration offical" is squealing that the White House outed Plame, and did so out of spite.
If her answer sounds clearly rehearsed, it means that the WaPo story isn't a surprise. That could mean the White House is attempting to get in front of the FBI, and is offering up the leakers in hopes of ending the story.
If you can't hear her answer through all the flop-sweat, the White House was surprised by this move, and it's a lone Deep Throat. Now that would be interesting.
wasn't it bar bush who brought suit against phil agee? charging that his naming of secret agents had caused the assassination of the athens chief of station?
an exquisite irony that her first born becomes responsible for doing what she sued agee for allegedly doing.
or have my synapses gotten the story wrong concerning bar's suing phil?
I want to speak up in Novak's defense.
He's a the kind of old fashioned conservative who's not all that comfortable with this administration. He gets some phone calls from "senior administration officials" who are committing a felony by trying to out a CIA agent.
If he does not write the column, the officials get away scott free, and may do this or something similar again. If he writes the column, Plame and her CIA contacts are hurt, but the big fish get hooked. Novak decides that wrecking a couple of senoir administration officials before they can do even more harm is worth more than Plame and co.
This decision is made even easier because the officials WANT him to write the column. He gets to do good for the country by exposing serious malfeasance (at some cost) and he gets to do good for himself by writing a column that is both important and curries favor with his sources.
Tonight's got the feeling of "Saturday Night Massacre Redux"
"More recently, he has been engaged in a legal battle with
former First Lady Barbara Bush. Agee filed a libel suit against
Mrs. Bush and her publisher for alleging, inaccurately, in her
autobiography that Agee was responsible for revealing the
identity of the CIA's Athens station chief in his first book,
just before the station chief was killed. The former first lady
ultimately agreed to remove the allegation from her book."
http://www.radio4all.org/crackci...ckcia/
agee.html
I have to agree that Cheney is one that they will jettison. It's way too likely that making phone calls to journalists is what he's been doing anyway all tucked away in the batcave like he is...
But Rove? I don't think so. The guy is way too creepy evil to have actually made the calls to the reporters himself. If his evilness knows anything its that he has to keep his own hands clean.
I agree that Tenet is behind the most current revelations. There's a reason he's still sitting pretty on his CIA perch.
Squiddy - you're most likely right. Since Novak and the other five journalists were being fed a story about a CIA operative, they had to call someone at CIA to try to confirm. That's why the source for the Washington Post story knows not only how many journalists received the leak, but also who the leakers were.
It will be interesting to see if the White House does "push back", or if they let the leakers twist in the wind.
i am skipping to the bottom w/o reading these comments to throw this out there: THIS IS OUR GENERATION'S WATERGATE PEOPLE. so no screwing around: let's get these bastards in jail BEFORE they start making tearful resignations on television and squeak out under somebody else's largesse.
and i mean, take it to the TOP.
To add to Hunter's excellent point about the senior administration official being in the know. Either 1) that official is comfortable with others in the administration knowing he leaked it or 2) so many senior administration officials know who did what that the leaking official can have anonymity among them. If it is the former, that comfort resides in either a) the fact that he is untouchable or b) the administration is intentionally leaking this now to control the spin - recognizing doom when they see it. I'm actually going to rule out 1b because the Post portrays the leaker as a genuine person who is acting on conscious. I don't think the Post would portray him that way if it wasn't the case. On the other hand, the Bushies would know this and have their best sympathy guy make the call. hmmmmm.
This is beyond the identities protection act, isn't it? Plame wasn't just a CIA operative, she was a CIA operative involved in the hunt for WMD.
Supposedly such weapons were the reason we invaded another country not too long ago.
So.. Bush invades a country based upon lies about WMD, while he (it's not only the campaign contribution buck that stops with you, Dubya), is responsible for blowing the cover of an agent involved in the hunt for REAL WMD. Isn't that aiding and abetting the enemy, when you compromise an agent working on intel related to national security...at a time of war?
This is treason, isn't it? Aren't we supposed to be in a war on terrorism? Aren't WMD one of the greatest threats to Americans as ways in which terrorists could attack this country?
The FBI needs to investigate on this basis, and we need a special prosecutor to ask why national security is so unimportant to those same politicians who were too busy writing Ken Lay's energy policy to read the reports on the threat of Al Qaeda.
You know, this all reminds me of a TV show.
No, really.
The now-cancelled series "The Agency", in one of their last shows, had an episode where a high-tech private security firm, in order to cover up some questionable dealings, manages to arrange potential blackmail material on a senior CIA officer and pushes the agency around to show them who is boss.
Only, the CIA takes it rather personally and decides to demonstrate how really bad an idea it is to tick them off.
All fictional of course. But man, what a feeling of deja vu.
I might be wrong, but I have to disagree with Atrios on this.
It was my understanding that a "senior administration official" was someone in the Department of Justice, the CIA, etc.
"A top White House official," meanwhile, is someone like the President, the Vice President, etc.
So I think the leak to the Post probably didn't come from someone in the White House, but the leak about Ms. Wilson (Plame) most certainly did.
You know, this all reminds me of a TV show.
No, really.
The now-cancelled series "The Agency", in one of their last shows, had an episode where a high-tech private security firm, in order to cover up some questionable dealings, manages to arrange potential blackmail material on a senior CIA officer and pushes the agency around to show them who is boss.
Only, the CIA takes it rather personally and decides to demonstrate how really bad an idea it is to tick them off.
All fictional of course. But man, what a feeling of deja vu.
Freeper's respond:
Wow indeed. The public has a right to know when the CIA undermines White House policy etc. Every one of those 6 journalists should have reported the story.
--
The leaker was an individual named Wilson.
--
This is political season hyperbole, abeted by Clinton holdovers in the administration. The CIA could serve us better by going after terrorists and not the GWB Admin. This stinks.
--
I bet it was a Clintoon appointee who just couldn't break the habit!
--
Come on Mo. It is not the President. The Washington Post's source believes the president wasn't involved. He isn't in danger here personally. This can be examined.
I hate to rain on the parade, but here's a hypothetical that doesn't bode quite as well:
Cheney takes the fall for Rove, along with Card possibly, then resigns to protect the president. While the Democrats celebrate the victory, Rove will already be drafting the new veep running mate strategy. Does Bush/Giuliani raise the hackles on anyone's neck?
Ooh, this is fun -- it's like Watergate, before the pieces came together. Fun -- except, of course, the part about how they outed a damn WMD expert and all her contacts, just for a half-assed political smear job, the bastards.
FWIW, my money's also on Tenet for this WaPo source. He handled the yellowcake fiasco with, ahem, surprising deftness. Or maybe Powell, but... no, Powell's been a solid team player through it all. (And Tenet meets the abstract definition of "top", but not "senior", I think.)
And I think that clearly, the decision to out Plame was not one or two quiet people, but a decision on the part of a number of senior admin. officials. It was clearly discussed, at some point, or this third person wouldn't be giving some of the quotes he's given to WaPo. And then a couple people got picked to do it.
Both of the "senior administration officials" had to have close enough relations with the press to be able to either (1) call Novak, or (2) take Novak's call on this, and casually do a confirm. But not all members of this administration are cozy with the press... or, honestly, nasty enough to do this.
So mark me down for... Condi. Condi and Rove were picked to do the job. If it's Rummy, I'll be surprised. I think it's near-impossible for it to be Cheney, as I said above -- the VPOTUS does not get put in the queue for intentional press leaks.
But it's Condi's job to know about CIA people, and about WMDs. If Novak called Condi, Condi could confirm quietly and matter-of-factly, and it would appear to be something she would just naturally know.
As for who originally called Novak, it almost certainly would have to be Condi, Rove, or Ari. Rummy wouldn't dirty himself calling a columnist, that'd be beneath him. Cheney? No way.
Yep, that's my prediction. At least, until Condi's MTP performance, which will tell us quite a bit more...
Whoops. Should be "freepers"
I love watching the Freepers twist and turn slowly in the wind...
Funny how little the moronic brownshirt fucks care about treason when it's committed by someone with an (R) next to their name... of course, Reagan and Bush I were in charge when the Chinese mole raided the missle file...
Dean and Clark should hammer this 24/7.
The Attorney General has made it DOJ policy to prosecute every crime to the fullest. In the coming months, let us hold Ashcroft to this principle. No plea bargains. Hard time.
I love it when a plan comes together...
Where does Novak figure into this? Out of six reporters contacted, he was the only to publish a story; he contacted the CIA and was asked not to name Plame. He published anyway, in an article which was basically sympathetic to Wilson.
Y'know, when you put on your tinfoil helmet, this story could be even stranger than what we know so far. Where's Zizka when we need him?
Anyway, how hard could it be for the White House to figure out who leaked? We know, from the Clark/Rove silliness, that they can check their phone logs going back a couple of years. So who, in the appropriate time frame, called a bunch of pundits, including Novak?
I think the shark just jumped the administration.
Bush/Giuliani?
First question out of a Democrats's mouth:
"Mr Giuliani, as you were the mayor of New York City during the events of 9/11, you were at the World Trade Center and saw some of the firefighters and police officers who gave their lives just minutes later, and elected by the people of New York, how do you explain the President's failure to provide the promised funding to first responders, the failure to provide the promised funding to New York City, and the suppression of knowledge by airborne contaminants carried out by the EPA at White House urging which has endangered the lives of New Yorkers?"
I like Tenet for the source, but given Powell's recent performance on Letterman and at the Times' editorial board, I don't think you can count him out just yet. If it's either of them, then Rove is definitely one of the leakers - this is the guy who let himself be caught by a reporter shouting "We'll fuck him like he's never been fucked before!" so I don't know if I buy his "cool as ice" cover.
As for caller #2... Powell taking out Rice would be too sweet!
Didn't read Hunter's post before the above...
Argh. Reverse all my "seniors" and "tops", but my logic remains the same. Sorry bout that, thinking and typing at the same time.
(Of course, Novak originally called them "senior", didn't he?)
Cheney will not take the fall. Remember this little caper comes with prison time attached.
Also, a scandal on this scale would damage Shrub to the point of nonelectability. This is about compromising national security, supposedly their trump card. And it all comes as their polling is at its worst ever. Shrub is too weak to ride it out.
It's the legal process that will push this, not the press. Subpoenas, subpoenas and more subpoenas. Expect a long fight before the WH gives up anything to whoever is investigating them.
WaPo identifies its source as a "senior administration official." Sounds like it could be CIA Director George Tenet -- he'd be the guy with all the details of the CIA's internal investigation and referral to the Justice Dept. He'd also have good reasons for talking to the WaPo: giving the story an extra kick to ensure that the lazy and incurious press doesn't ignore the issue, and also and payback to the White House for the scapegoating they gave him over State of the Union "16 little words" controversy.
I'm happy to say that Dean is already on this one. Hopefully the other candidates (and other Dems in Congress) will follow suit.
I'm also waiting breathlessly for the first sighting of "what did the President know and when did he know it?" The phrase "senior Administration official" certainly means someone who spends a lot of time in the West Wing, pointing the finger awfully close to the smirky little bastard himself.
One point mentioned in an earlier post that's worth reflecting on.
Since there are two SAOs who leaked the Plame info, there are likely at least three involved. Why? Because unless one of the two answers to the other, then almost certainly some boss above them ALSO knew they were going to leak -- it's pretty inconceivable they would both do it without at minimum passing it by their boss, because there are too many ways it could catch up with them. If they have different direct bosses, then, by extension, you have to go up further to find the point where the paths of command intersect.
So the interesting question is, how far up the chain of command do you have to go to find the first person whom both SAOs must answer to? It's highly likely that that person too knew about it.
I find it funny that the Washington Post article itself has a picture of Tenet at the top of the article. Not exactly subtle, is it?
Reuters has it now, based on the Post report, plus this:
A CIA spokesperson declined to comment on the investigation and an attempt to reach a Justice Department spokesperson was unsuccessful. White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan repeated previous dismissals of claims that administration officials had revealed a CIA operative's identity.
http://www.forbes.com/work/
newsw...rtr1093288.html
"It's the legal process that will push this, not the press. Subpoenas, subpoenas and more subpoenas. Expect a long fight before the WH gives up anything to whoever is investigating them."
I don't know. The WH knows that an investigation draws this out closer to election time. The big question to them is going to be can they bury it until AFTER the election???? But this also depends on Bush's ability to cut off a couple of administration figures cleanly.
From the Dean thing:
"If it is true, they have gone way beyond petty retribution - they have undermined a key national security tenet and violated two federal laws."
I dig.
Does anyone know what happens to this story in the event that it turns out that Plame was not a CIA agent?
Mithras-- Would the CIA have asked the Department of Justice for an investigation of wrong-doing if Ms. Wilson/Plame hadn't been an agent?
I can't get my head around the obviousness of leaking to the press, though. Yes, this administration is petty and vindictive, but why on earth would they attempt to leak something that--once published--would so obviously be tracked back to them?
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan repeated previous dismissals of claims that administration officials had revealed a CIA operative's identity.
Oooh, someone's workin' the night shift...
Kat -- I bet they didn't know it was illegal. I bet they were just folling their standard procedures for smearing opponents, and plumb forgot that little detail.
This cuts to the core of what support the president still has. That support is based on the perception that he strongly defends our national security. The only thing he could do to preserve that perception would be to sacifice the two officials. He probably can't do that because they'll be facing prison time and will be looking for deal. He'll have to stonewall, but I think that will backfire as well.
The way I see it, the two top administration officials should be the one who provided the information and the one who authorized the leak.
The purpose of the leak seems to be an attempt to discredit the ambassador (smear job); however as it is noted, the smear job was poorly done. Showing that the one who authorized the leak was either hasty or desperate. So the one who authorized the leak should have
1) Had a lot at stake during the Yellowcake incident.
2) Had a limited experience with public relations.
Whoever provided the information must
either have extensive knowledge of the intelligence network or know the ambassador personally. If he or she knew about the smear job number 2 also applies.
Of course, even if the president was directly involved, I would expect all the other administration officials to cover for him. After all, who is giving out pardons?
Seamus
They can't shut it down with low-level scapegoats, because too many people know who the high-level perps are. And giving up the true perps would cause too much political damage. They have to fight it.
Kat -- a false sense of invulnerability?
i dont think we should discount ari. remember the only reason those 16 words became a big deal - or any sort of deal, in fact - was because he essentially admitted it. i always thought that was more than an inadvertant slip.
And the other thing about this -- this blows any thought that Ashcroft can stonewall an investigation right out of the water. He can recuse himself, but he can't sit on it. The investigation is on, for real.
The WaPo story has a senior administration official basically putting the rest of Washington on notice -- saying "They did it. They did it on purpose. I know who did it. And if they don't tell, I will."
Smart, smart boy.
PinkDreamPoppies - I am not saying it is likely, but it is possible that Plame is not a CIA agent and the CIA is doing this simply to embarrass the White House. In this hypothetical, from the CIA's perspective, the fact that the identification was incorrect is irrelevant - it's still a step over the line.
WaPo identifies its source as a "senior administration official." Sounds like it could be CIA Director George Tenet -- he'd be the guy with all the details of the CIA's internal investigation and referral to the Justice Dept. He'd also have good reasons for talking to the WaPo: giving the story an extra kick to ensure that the lazy and incurious press doesn't ignore the issue, and also and payback to the White House for the scapegoating they gave him over State of the Union "16 little words" controversy.
Nameless -- rather than a shoddy smear job, I'd put money on a complacent smear job. If you take out the fact that outing Plame is a crime the rest of it -- discrediting someone by digging up trash about their background or family -- fits the White House m.o. perfectly. That's what they always do -- only this time, they forgot that CIA spooks have different rules from regular folks.
I've always been convinced that they really just did plumb forget that outing an undercover operative was -- gasp -- really, really illegal. (I don't imagine the fact that it was grossly immoral ever entered their heads at all.)
Either that, or they were so full of themselves that they didn't think there was any way anyone was ever going to call them on it, because they'd been riding so high up till then.
In either case, I don't think it was an amateur job at all, I think they just played one card too many.
can we start focus group testing "Nigergate" ?
Oops. Sorry for the double post.
OK, get a grip, people. Rove will never be frog-marched out of the White House, handcuffed or otherwise.
Now, freedom-marched, well, that's a cheval of another color, eh?
I have nothing much to add to all this. . .I just want to say that I'm enjoying it tremendously. 
P.S. Like that one guy said--this really is the best political discussion on the net, or as far as I know, anywhere. I love this place. If I ever have any money I'm going to contribute my ass off.
Hunter: " I bet they didn't know it was illegal".
I bet they didn't give a flying f**k about it, one way or the other.
They've jerked the press around for so long that they've come to feel themselves invulnerable.
And, after all, why should they feel otherwise? A half-dozen reporters and their editors- aside from Novak- have been aware just who the 'senior administration officials' were that compromised a CIA operative. And they didn't "report" it.
American journalism was pronounced dead tonight. Long live American journalism.
Just to summarize for anyone who's skipping to the bottom -- IMO, the best guesses were made early in the thread:
(1) The "senior administration official" who talked to the Post was Tenet ("Mea culpa, my ass, Georgie!"). The details he confirmed would only be known to the person who oversaw the investigation. Plus, the motive is clear -- to ensure that Ashcroft can't stifle the proble. Not only that, it's likely that Wilson and Tenet have been in contact behind the scenes, hence Wilson's confidence about the frog-marching potential.
(2) The leakers were probably Rove and Fleischer. What other "top WH officials" would have the job of calling multiple reporters?
(3) Yeah, Condi Rice can't be looking forward to being on TV tomorrow morning. Especially after the roasting Russert took for being soft on Cheney.
Dick Cheney gets my vote for the SAO who was stupid enough to do this. Seems like the kind of half-ass spy-game subterfuge he would engage him.
It's not too difficult to imagine Dick and Scooter Libby (and probably Newt too), sipping branding at 2am, plotting such a scheme in an attempt to cover-up the hornet's nest they stirred up a year ago when they cut and pasted together those phony uranium docs.
How long before we see a serious grass roots attempt by Republicans to draft Hagel or McCain?
Or Giuliani?
I'm really late to this party but...one name that hasn't been mentioned is Karen Hughes. She's been shrub's protector for a long time. I know she formally left the White House but indicated that she'd still be protecting, I mean advising, him and I thought I heard recently that she was coming back. She works closely with Rove, could she out Ms. Plame and give Rove cover?
Oh, and one more thing that was correctly surmised above, IMO -- "The official would not name the leakers for the record" *does* mean that he named them off the record.
Tenet's way of saying to Rove and Ari, "The house is surrounded. You can't escape. Come out with your hands up." :D
In search of.....
Frogmarch boobies!
where ya at Woot?
I'm not sure who the leakers were, and I don't care to speculate at this point, but to those who think that it might be Cheney and that this would in turn lead to a Bush/Giuliani or Bush/McCain or Bush/whomever ticket:
If Cheney goes down, Bush is done. He might run, but I can guarantee that he would lose a lot of credibility if the Vice President were screwing about and committed a felony, enough credibility, in fact, that I don't think many people would turn out to vote for him.
A new VP wouldn't help Bush is Cheney were behind this. Actually, if it gets big enough, not much at all will help Bush out.
The tinfoil-hat crowd is likely already sending up alarms along the lines of "wouldn't it be awfully convenient for a terror attack to take place in the next few days?"
If the Bush cabal ever needed that kind of distraction, it would be now.
Oh, and the reaction of the Freepers is downright hilarious.
I tip my tinfoil hat to ya Mark.
Maybe if we predict it enough, it won't happen?
I can't wade through all the posts above, so this may have already been offered:
I think this admission, because it is so extraordinary for anyone in this administration to actually use the word ``wrong'' to describe anyone or anything in it, is not fessing up. It is damage control.
Damage control, as in containing damage at a lower level.
Damage control, as in, this doesn't stop with the ``two officials'' who planted the story.
Damage control, as in someone either directed these two officials to do what they did, or approved somebody's initiative -- probably along the lines of ``Feels good: Stick it to 'em.'' And that person could be Cheney or Bush himself.
I like Ari for one of the perps:
He resigned May 19, BUT he was hanging around for a couple of months after that; in fact, McClellan took over for Ari on July 15 -- nine days after Wilson blew the whistle on the Niger doc, and a day before Novak outed Plame at the direction of his White House handlers.
I'm not hip enough to the rest of the White House to speculate on who partnered on the hit job, but I'm gonna guess Andrew Card for the WaPo source for today's story and I'm thinking the original orders were Cabinet level and signed off by the Veep.
This is bee-yoo-tee-ful.
as far as plame being undercover, I think the ambiguity may be that she isn't now, but used to be. the legal ambiguity. they always check with the lawyers.
so it could be that the cia is pissed, or trying to embarrass, because just because plame is no longer undercover, that doesn't mean it's safe or prudent for her to be outed, or that she may not have gone undercover again later.
plus, everyone she worked with now knows they were on cia watch. not a good thing. in fact, a great warning to duck and cover, if anything, for those she once did infiltrate.
this is all hypothetical, but I do sort of doubt they would have outed someone currently undercover. lawyers are around, after all.
doesn't make it right though. would explain wilson's anger about destyoying his wife's career (future covert assignments).
they're going down because of the pattern, and perception, not necessarily the letter of these laws. unless it's still a violation to out a former covert agent.
This is the first time this administration has reminded me of the Nixon days is a GOOD way.
John Dean was on this, a month ago:
"Nixon never set up a hit on one of his enemies' wives."
Here's the thing (and it was alluded to above): If it was Rove and Ari, as everyone seems to want so much, then there is a second scandal that is just as bad. To wit: what jackass is telling the party hacks classified information of that sort? That's why I think that Rice or Rumsfeld must be involved somehow. Bush & Cheney are too high up to get directly involved in this foolishness, Powell & Tenet have too much integrity and there is no reason for anyone else to have any info on this stuff. It's not like they forward the identities of CIA officers to the Department of Agriculture.
I wrote back in July that I thought it was one of the Bartlet/Eskew/Wilkinson Boys in the band. The South Carolina smear crew.
They are all Rove's creatures.
Everyone seems to be gravitating towards Cheney... but I just don't see him playing cloak 'n dagger with a reporter. As I said before, the VPOTUS is generally not someone in the queue when the White House wants to intentionally leak something.
I also think, as people have said, Cheney is not expendable. It's survivable, politically, if a cabinet member goes to jail. It is not survivable to have the Vice President of the United States being hauled off. Or getting pardoned, for that matter. That's not the sort of thing that'll get you reelected. So he doesn't go down, here, whether he was involved or not.
I think we have to look slightly lower. I'm not saying Cheney didn't have a hand in this... but I'd be stunned if he did this kind of dirty deed himself.
As I said, the people most likely to be "in the know" about Plame were Condi, Rummy, Powell, and Cheney, in that general order. And we can bet it ain't Powell. And Rummy would rather shoot reporters than play footsie with them. Condi -- she's senior, but more accessible to the press than the others. And, as we saw during the yellowcake stuff, she is mean, and heavily invested in that particular lie.
(As an aside, re: Ari -- does Press Secretary even count as "senior"? I didn't think it did, at least I've never heard that phrase used for Press Sec. I can see him setting up the original calls, coming up with the list of likely ideologues, but as a middleman, not a source.)
this is all hypothetical, but I do sort of doubt they would have outed someone currently undercover. lawyers are around, after all.
Lawyers are around, sure, but do you think that an administration with the kind of mania for secrecy that these guys have would run this past a lawyer? They may not know when not to out undercover officers, but they do know the first rule of operational security: Don't tell anyone anything they don't need to know.
Justice might actually be served!?!
{swoon}
Pass the French wine my friends...a toast to the god of fortune.
The lying devils are actually being marred by wrong-doing. This is far too perfect to be real.
Give me $20 on Tenet outing Rove and Card.
The fun part is that there is no way higher-level officials didn't have wind of this, and taint themselves with complacency.
OK, check out this:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/972886...86.asp?
0cv=CA00
In some past lifetime, or maybe 3 years ago, I might well have taken this report at face value. Now however, my tinfoil hat guess on this is that the White House found out a while ago that the CIA was going to demand the investigation from Justice. They pressured the House Intelligence Committee to make this report as critical of the CIA as possible. In this way, they defend themselves by attacking indirectly and behind the scenes, and in the process sow doubt about the capabilities and integrity of the top CIA officials, the ones who just asked Justice for the investigation.
The main justification for this admittedly crazy idea is midway down the article, "The committee, like all congressional panels, is controlled by Republicans, and its chairman, Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), is a former CIA agent and a longtime supporter of Tenet and the intelligence agencies. Goss and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), signed the letter. Neither was available for comment yesterday. The full committee has not voted on the letter’s conclusions."
Does anyone know anything about Rep. Goss or Harman? Why in the world would Goss sell out Tenet and his friends at the CIA, if not because of direct White House pressure? And of course one big counterargument is the question of why would any Democrat go along with this?
Even if this rather unlikely chain of events happened, and the WH did exert this pressure, it certaintly shows that aren't going down without a fight but I don't see how it could protect any "top officials". Either they outed the agent or they didn't, and, if they did, there are enough people who know about it that it will come out eventually. So making the top CIA officials look bad through this Committee report is just another act of spite by Bush & friends.
(OK, now, please tell me I need professional help...)
Re: potential of finding a new VP candidate.
Everyone talks about Bush-the-puppet, but I just can't see him getting on board with the notion of having Giuliani up there next to him on the big stage. If Cheney does go one way or the other, it would seem they'd try to find some (relatively) Young Thing to act the part of novice.
As for the leaking scandal in general... I'm personally not getting my hopes up at all. If the President was facing a hostile Congress, things might have been different. But under present circumstances, it all comes down to whether the mainstream media runs with it over the next few days. If they don't, the whole thing could still just dry up and blow away.
(Yeah -- what Mac said.
I've been saying for months that these people were making me nostalgic for Nixon.
Looks like that's all too appropriate. And if that's not a damning indictment in itself, I don't know what is.
Someone else remarked on this above, but it didn't really sink in until just now.
We all assume individuals such as Rove and Card know everything in this administration. I believe the pertinent question is, should they have had access to this type of information?
What I want to know is did anybody get a blowjob?
Fancy shooting, all of ya. Hats off.
Just a thought, though:
It was Cheney's office who wanted to send someone off fact-finding in Niger in the first place, though Cheney later denied "knowing" Wilson, and I believe Wilson did confirm that they had no personal relationship.
Wilson, from WaPo: "The way it was briefed to me was that the office of the vice president had expressed an interest in a report covering uranium purchases by Iraq from Niger," Wilson said in a telephone interview yesterday.
But Novak's source (and hence, Novak) asserted that Plame herself suggested Wilson for the job, so whether that's true or not, Novak's narrative would tend to implicate Cheney's office, no?
Especially in the context of this, from WaPo:
When Novak told a CIA spokesman he was going to write a column about Wilson's wife, the spokesman urged him not to print her name "for security reasons," according to one CIA official. [Tenet? Today's leaker to WaPo?] Intelligence officials said they believed Novak understood there were reasons other than Plame's personal security not to use her name, even though the CIA has declined to confirm whether she was undercover.
Reminder - John Dean said Plame was previously known to her friends as an energy analyst at a private firm.
Well, we have two TOP White House officials. There aren't very many of those. We have ONE senior administration official... with an axe to grind against the White House, or a deep sense of moral outrage that has seen its last straw.
So, it's probably Tenet leaking the TWHO to the press. The final "No - fuck YOU!" in the little CIA/White House spat.
MAYBE Ridge? He's kinda pissed about not getting his funding, and he'd probably know who's running down WMD at the CIA. He's definitely the sort of do-gooder goody two shoes that wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut if something really struck him as putting national security at risk. I doubt it, though.
Maybe the leaker is Ari? We don't know what the reason was behind his departure. He wouldn't be likely to know details of who's who in CIA undercover ops, but you can be damn sure he knows who the two TWHO people are. If the hubris and bragging in the White House are as bad as they seem to be, I would doubt there's anyone working there that could be called "senior" that doesn't know the whole damn story.
I still think it's Tenet, but it could be someone else. I'd appreciate the drama of a twist as to the identity of the leaker, but, I'd bet on him as the source.
As to the two TWHOs... Rice would know who's doing what at the CIA, presumably. Rove is sleazy enough to leak Plame to the press, and there's Wilson's little comment about him and the frog march to bear in mind. Andy Card is a shady guy. He'd be up for it. No way is it Cheney. He would never jeapordize his position. No way. Rumsfeld wouldn't do it, it undermines his war. Powell? Maybe. He strikes me as the vindictive type. You know a person doesn't advance as far as he has without knowing how to do some internecine back-stabbing when appropriate.
Gee. It's like one of those clifhanger serials. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
Damn. I'm so late coming to this. To think I took a big long break to do things like spend time with my family, then I just 'quickly check' Eschaton and lo and behold! Deus ex machina!
...at least I fervently hope so anyway.
I just re-read the Post article, and was struck by this statement by the White House:
"White House press secretary Scott McClellan said he knows of no leaks about Wilson's wife. "That is not the way this White House operates, and no one would be authorized to do such a thing," McClellan said. "I don't have any information beyond an anonymous source in a media report to suggest there is anything to this. If someone has information of this nature, then he or she should report it to the Department of Justice".
In light of that statement, why didn't the (alleged) half dozen reporters (other than Novak) contact the Justice Department and spill their guts about who it was that they spoke with?
And then have a colleague report on their situation?
They had a green light, from an administration that claimed they were innocent of the allegation, to do just that. Indeed, they had a patriot's responsibility to do just that, didn't they?
The nation is at war, and top administration officials had fingered a CIA operative. The official spokesman for that administration denied it had happened.
So how on earth would those reporters have compromised their sources, or their careers, by exposing rogue operatives within the executive branch?
And reporters talk do talk to their editors on a regular basis, don't they? And editors answer to owners?
American journalism died tonight. Long live American journalism.
My guesses for WaPo's possible source:
Powell. Everyone else in the regime has been systematically trying to undermine his position, and on the surface he's been bending over and taking it like a good soldier, but the people in State have not been happy with Rumsfeld taking over foreign relations. If it was Powell, I'm betting he's trying to get ahead of his own people in State, and insulate himself from the fallout.
Tenet. This one's easy: he knows his own agency is pissed about this entire thing, and if something isn't done about it and soon, they might start leaking like a cheap condom. Best to beat them to it and do this on his terms.
I don't see anyone else at all who qualifies as "senior" and who would even possibly be willing to do this.
As for the guilty parties, obviously Wilson thinks Rove was involved. Whoever else it was, they'll just blame him anyway.
I'm sleepy. I meant to postulate Powell as a possible leaker to the WaPo, not a Plame leaker...
musing graze -- Cheney most likely knew about Plame. An undercover CIA agent working as a consultant at an Energy firm... Hmmmm. Maybe Cheny directed the two TWHOs to leak her identity to the press after his name came up? That's definitely possible.
Bush will pardon whoever did this. We will stir with righteous rage but ultimately the story will pass.
The shark jumped the Bush
The snout's in his tush
Hi ho the derry-o
The shark jumped the bush
My first thought on the WaPo leaker of today was Powell.
Remember his little pattycake with the NYT the other day? I still haven't seen any stated reason for that meeting.
Tenet or Powell . . .
Of course pardons are in the picture.
But first, we have the falling leaves.
"oh, be still my beating heart"...
Could we finally be on the cusp of seeing at least one of these meglomaniacal fucks thrown to the wolves?
And once it starts? Katie bar the door.
These people have no honor and will not, Will Not, stand together.
please, please, please...
On a related front, I hope that this story does not eclipse the equally embarrassing shenanigans regarding Barbour, Chalabi, Feith et al, being outed by Josh at TPM.
This outrage has the potential to be even bigger than the Wilson/Plame affair.
I'm spending at least 1 hour everyday sending links on those stories to everyone I can think of, senators, media, bloggers, etc.
Feel free to join me....
kimo: I too have had thoughts of Hughes as the primary WaPo source with Tenet in Hughes' info background. Hughes is loyal to Bush, but not to Rove or Card. The two of them forced her out and Card occupies her old office. She has everything to gain by initiating Card and Rove's dismissal. It was a payback from her to them.
IMHO... Cheney,Rice,Rove,Card have a strategy meeting about what to do with Wilson's story. Wilson's story is most damaging to Cheney and Rice. The four of them hastily decide to out his wife. Wilson himself says this a warning to all CIA personnel not to talk to the press or they will get outed too. I agree that the fact it was illegal to do it never entered the universe of the Bush Mindless Machine. It's not their style to care about those trivial matters.
One miscalculation that was made by Novak. He thought others would print this story. They didn't because they have scruples and he doesn't. I am certain he totally regrets doing it now.
I want to know why nobody's even considering hauling Novak up on charges. Now we know he's the only one out of 6 reporters who ran the story. Novak clearly violated the law just as much as the unnamed sources.
There are two possibilities on Novak's actions. Either he's a treasonous bastard, or else he's a journalistic genius set on bringing down the administration. You can probably guess where my bets are placed.
Bush will pardon whoever did this. We will stir with righteous rage but ultimately the story will pass.
Politically, I'm not sure he can pardon anyone for this.
It's such an egregious violation of national security, for pure personal spite, that even moderate Republicans would probably be disgusted with it.
More to the point, Georgie has been carefully groomed as the anti-Clinton. Where Clinton was worldly, Bush had never been outside the country. Where Clinton is smart, Bush is "simple." And so on.
Something as cynical as pardoning an outright traitor would reveal him as just as much a politician as Clinton, and that sort of comparison would destroy him.
Here's a question that i've been puzzling over: given that, as the Leaker in the WaPo says, the attempt at smearing Wilson was so ineffectual, in that it didn't really harm *him* in any notable way (setting aside the whole horrifying business of destroying his wife's career, endangering her life or those of her contacts, etc), just what the hell did the 2 "top WH officials" think they were trying to accomplish? It seems too easy to say that it was just pure, vindictive spite. We all know these folks are scum, but can it really be that they're this prodigiously stupid and venal? Evil yes, but moronic? My only other theory is that it was less about payback than a foolish attempt to manipulate the press in the same way they'd been doing all along in the run-up to Iraq: putting two unrelated facts next to each other (eg Saddam and 9/11), and trying to get the press and public to bite on a supposed connection. In this case, it was the suggestion that if Wilson's CIA wife had told him to go to Niger ("Wilson and his wife are the real story" say the Two), then there must be some deep dark CIA-shrouded truth to the story after all, even if her husband "officially" denies it. Perhaps they weren't trying to intimidate at all (not that I don't believe they'd do it), but were rather up to their usual smoke-and-mirrors game with the press and weren't thinking about the fact that their media-manipulations also implicated them in a treasonous felony. Still stupid, obviously, but a different kind of stupidity that suggests an obsession with managing the White House PR over an interest in national security. Which for me points back again to Rove.
Novak's job is to report, but morally he will not be able to justify naming Wilson's wife, rather than just referencing her as such (his wife).
That single act has caused harm to this nation, and was unnecessary. Ultimately though, I see it as the tip of the iceberg, the cracking of the veneer, the outing of the wizard behind the curtain, as the pattern of deception suddenly comes sharply and inevitably into focus. Even with the mainstream media and the American people.
So Novak's column could be the thing that saves us. Not by intent, but by effect.
Outing an agent is arguably worse than lying about a blow job, and Berlioz wrote no better music than the frog march. But ...
What about the billions for Halliburton? $100M for 7 planned communities with their individual places of worship? These guys are criminal, but let's not forget that they're insatiably greedy, too.
Follow the money. It's the economy, stupid. Jobs are down and poverty's up, but millionaires at least are doing better.
This scandal, however tasty, is damnably difficult to describe to anyone who hasn't been following the story. Yellowcake, Niger, non-official cover, Novak.
Does tossing someone to the wolves improve their re-election chances, anyway?
Here's an idea: what if the WaPp leaker and one of the Plame leakers were the same? Say Ridge, as a newcomer to the administration, with little experience in federal government and unused to being subordinate, was drawn into this smear campaign. A few months later, he has his feet a little more and has a crisis of conscience, and decides to give the plot up, implicating the other two leakers. The adminsistration collapses, leaving Ridge untouched because he came out for truth. Now he is the only untainted republican available who is not in congress, has national security and anti-terror experience. It's coming down to the wire, and there is no time for the party to find anybody else to run for president. Ridge for President, 2004.
Can anyone tell me why MSNBC, CBS, and now TIME.COM are the only ones so far even reporting this story? We need to hold the media accountable. I just sent an email to CNN.COM asking them why they have a headline, "Poll reveals most hated sports" on the front page, but absolutely nothing about "Wilsongate".
I wonder if this is enough of a loose thread - what with the serious legal implications and now official inquiry - to unravel the entire skein? The Bushies have gotten a pass on so many sleazy or borderline incidents (none of which pass the "if it were the Clintonites" test), but a special prosecutor or any type of fishing expedition could turn over a lot of rocks, even without Ken Starr's wide-ranging concept of relevance.
Here's my scenario:
First we take out Spiral Corkskrew by catching him taking cash bribes in fat envelopes at the VP's desk.
Then replace him with Geriatric Fraud.
Then we get rid of the big guy himself, Tricky Hick.
Oh, no, wait, I'm thinking of Watergate.
Nevermind.
Remember when 16 words was going to result in impeachment? Yeah, I heard, this is different. Sure. The American public are paying attention his time. Right.
Remember when 16 words was going to result in impeachment? Yeah, I heard, this is different. Sure. The American public are paying attention his time. Right.
I suppose the hope is that it's cumulative. Sixteen little words plus two little leaks plus one unnecessary war plus innumerable minor crimes have to add up to something.
i also emailed cnn.com and asked where the story was.
Let's ask our "moderate Republicans" in the congress and senate to look into this. Let's see if Leach, Snowe, Collins, Chaffee, Shays, and Specter are really interested in law and justice or if they are only fig leaves covering the shame of their party.
Well aside from the fact that the righteous anger I've been feeling over the past thirty-some hours is finally getting some satisfaction, I admit I'm confused about the name-the-leakers game.
Let me just add one more suggestion (which may actually be wishful thinking). I've read so much at this point that it's all swimming in my head now, but I think it was at AlMartinRaw.com (have to delve into google cache to find it), but wherever it popped up, the suggestion was made that COLIN POWELL might be the one to spill the beans on this. He may be truly fed up for having to spit out all that deceptive drivel for his bosses. The wishful thinking part is that if it WERE someone from the Department of State who began demanding an investigation, it would be LEGALLY IMPOSSIBLE for Ashcroft to refuse to follow it up. Whereas in legal terms, I don't think Tenet can force Ashcroft's hand.
In our household we've been speculating that Powell might not have sold out 100%, and that some day after he's left this administration he will write one whopper of a kiss and tell book.
So what do you think? Am I an unwitting member of the tin foil hat brigade for even speculating along these lines, or is it a possibility?
EPT: Good point. The chair of the House Judiciary Committee is James Sensenbrenner (R) from Milwaukee, WI. or sensenbrenner@mail.house.gov
I am sure he would be interested in hearing public concerns regarding this apparent act of official misconduct.
a comment or two on this bit from Seraphiel:
...In light of that statement, why didn't the (alleged) half dozen reporters (other than Novak) contact the Justice Department and spill their guts about who it was that they spoke with? ....
1) Let us please from this point forward keep in mind that if he is a journalist in any real sense, Novak is a corrupt journalist. He is a willing mouthpiece for the right wing of the Republican party. His work is entirely agenda-driven and therefore untrustworthy.
2)Unless the source told WaPo specifically who these other journalists were, let's figure they could range from bona fide reporters who decided not to report such an obvious hatchet job to other hacks of the Novak ilk who just figured they'd let somebody else do the job. In any case, I would hope to god by now that going to the Ashcroft Justice Dept. with anything is understood as a fool's errand.
Keep up the great work. This is the real deal, folks.
Unless the source told WaPo specifically who these other journalists were, let's figure they could range from bona fide reporters who decided not to report such an obvious hatchet job to other hacks of the Novak ilk who just figured they'd let somebody else do the job.
Or, hacks who didn't have a deadline the next day, got scooped, and decided it wasn't worth saying the same thing over again. After all, in the cold light of day, this really isn't a very good story. What does the general public care what Valerie Plame does for a living? The only people who it could really make a difference to would be Republicans trying (without particular competence - see previous sentence) to make Wilson look bad, people with WMD's who are trying to keep it a secret, and the CIA (who already knew anyway).
to Swopa and others he summarizes(and this is not a knock to you or anyone, just my takes, believe me.)
1) Tenet sounds OK to me, with a but..... I'm on the board with Card because of my subtle but as yet unbacked () theory that the leaker is still a true believer who's trying to prevent a huge s**tstorm by copping to a smaller one. Here's the line that makes me think so:
``.....the senior official said the leaks were "wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility."
I'm expanding on Josh Marshall's comment on that quote: ``How about just wrong and leave out that they were ineffective?''
Marshall's pointing out the moral shallowness of the leaker, which makes me think this is less outrage than damage control.
Now, that said, Card seems like a big enough slimeball that he wouldn't want to be involved in any true confessions.
2) As I've said I like Ari for one of the hit men, but I don't see Rove getting directly involved. As for who has the job of calling multiple reporters: people are working and getting worked by reporters all the time, and everybody in an administration can get to any reporter they feel like within minutes, if not seconds. There are phone logs somewhere with Novak's number on them that would narrow it down considerably. Unless, of course, they get ``lost'' or accidentally shredded. And watch how suddenly righteous Novak becomes about ``protecting his sources.''
3)I sure hope Condi doesn't come down with a virus.
and to kimo: very intriguing idea with Hughes as the snitch to WaPo. And if it is her, that means this thing is extremely deep.
OMFG ... overnight it got on the Headline News reel, meaning that Joe and Doris Sixpack are getting it. This turned the torture of having to get up early for a long drive into sheer joy!
I have only on thing to say on this story.
Kobe
Condit
Jon Benet
please people please
look away
Oh, and the pardon is on the desk in the Oval office now.
Oh yea, the phone logs. The WH was sure fast on finding those when trying to debunk Clark on the 9/11 call to him suggesting blameing Saddam.
In this case I'm sure they are lost.
Story absent in the NYT as of 7:30AM EST 9/28
Then of course the Times has a 'special relationship" with the CIA. Behind it's so called "lliberalism" the Times is THE voice of the CIA.
In search of.....
Frogmarch boobies!
where ya at Woot?
Not that I can fill Woot's place, but...
Chinese...
Japanese...
Dirty knees...
Look at
these! (.)(.)
http://www.ellenforney.com/7in75...n75/
boobies.jpg
At MSNBC the top story is yellowgate with 4765 votes, next story has 87 votes.
the blogesphere never sleeps
Guess that just sows up the topic on sunday morning.
Now its on CNN Headline?
That wont be pretty for hung over joe six pack first thing in the morning.
Cheney, Rice, Rove, Card have a strategy meeting about what to do with Wilson's story.
Sounds plausible. Rove and Card by themselves wouldn't know about Plame being an agent. But Cheney could know. And certainly such strategy meetings are common enough.
Later, Rove decides to "fuck [Wilson] like he's never been fucked before." How this decision results in two officials calling six journalists is unclear. (Does he do it himself, along with Ari? Does Card do it?) But this sure as hell sounds like Rove's decision.
Who leaks the the referral to Justice? Almost certainly Tenet.
Man, I missed all the fun by sleeping! Can I add my two cents? its in the tinfoil range:
my theory is that they won't be able to pull off a distracting "terrorist" event because they actually don't have anything to respond with right now and it would only make them look more incompetent (the only thing bush has going for him right now with some people is the "look, we're safer now" story). My theory is that they will have cheney go down with a fake heart-attack or stroke, just enough for reams of sympathetic coverage, sobbing wife and gay daughter, and they will hold it long enough to blow the other stuff off the front pages. then they might or might not replace him after a huge public beauty contest to keep people distracted. only they can't pick condi at this point so what woman would they pick to signal that they are *still* kinder, gentler? I know, what about hillary???--aimai
Karmakin wrote:
Has any of the other candidates made a call for an investigation as of yet? ... As of 9 PST, only Dean has anything about this. The other candidates need to get their ass in gear. Pronto.
I suppose so, if you want reporters to write the story around the relative (ass) postures of the Democratic candidates, and not the leak, the leaker, the cover-up of the leaker, the statute violated, the historical and institutional signifigance of what was leaked, and the importance of the problem domain of the exposed specialist.Oh, and the judicial and legislative mandated sequela.
Personally, I can think of only one campaign stupid and venal enough to want to "get out front" on this one, and turn it from Watergate to Candidate. Quote of next week "I'm the only candidate here who thinks this is about me." Well, I guess Kucinich could run that one too.
Anyway, don't expect US Senators on Oversight or Judiciary who are campaigning to be the nominee of the Democratic Party to rush to form a pre-trial mob.
Deanies. Blech. Stupid as rocks.
Please add this piece to the conjectures about who in the administration talked to WaPo about the other two, and who the second one was:
When Cheney blatantly lied AGAIN on MTP about Iraq, etcetera, by Wednesday after that Sunday, what he said, and indirectly Cheney himself, was publically disavowed by Bush. Live and on TV. IIRC, it was a question from John King, CNN?
Middle of a news cycle and they go public with something like this. I thought then, that it was very, very big and that they were gearing up to shuck Cheney. Bet they knew then that the Plame thing was oozing past the containment wall erected.
Journalism is much to important to the health of democracy to leave in the hands, and rest upon the judgements, of people who draw their living wage from reporting.
They are too easily corrupted. Viva the Blog.
Since we're guessing. The leaker is from Powell's shop. The rats were Libby at the behest of Cheney and Rove at the behest of Bush. This act was in the words of the leaker, vindictive and stupid. I can think of no more conscise description of George Bush's personality.
"Deanies. Blech. Stupid as rocks."
Actually no silly rabbit.
Dean is in a perfect position to throw some gasoline on the fire vis a vis his apperance on the sunday morning pundit brunch parade.
Or we could just do the standard"why cant we all just get along" bush-lite school of democratic roll-overism.
Garunteed to put the mob back to sleep.
outing an agent may carry 10 years in jail, but treason in a time of war can result in the death penalty.
condi on mtp: she's crumblin' like mary tyler moore!
Oh Mr. Grant.........
Or we could just do the standard"why cant we all just get along" bush-lite school of democratic roll-overism.
Garunteed to put the mob back to sleep.
Shaun
Couldn't agree more.
To go one step further, since this story first broke, Novack column, how many Democrats have called for an investigation?
I would like to see a timeline from Novack until today, so I can have a visual of reaction time and interest.
Personally, I can think of only one campaign stupid and venal enough to want to "get out front" on this one, and turn it from Watergate to Candidate. Quote of next week "I'm the only candidate here who thinks this is about me." Well, I guess Kucinich could run that one too.
Anyway, don't expect US Senators on Oversight or Judiciary who are campaigning to be the nominee of the Democratic Party to rush to form a pre-trial mob.
Deanies. Blech. Stupid as rocks.
Abenaki first, Democrat second
Democrat apologists are a MAJOR part of the problem.
If your party isn't willing to do or say shit about a serious breach of national security, what good are they?
That makes them part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Where is Clark on this? Since he is the new Dem annointed?
Arron McGruder made the point, On Real Time, it is time for those without a chance in hell of dropping out. Edwards, Lieberman, Graham, Sharpton, Braun, Gephardt, Kucinich. Possibly Kerry, he loses ground every day.
While Sharpton and Kucinich add more to the discourse than the pablum most of the others spew, they do not have a chance.
Mainly because most Democrats forgot to vote for values, instead of electability. Sold a false premise by the party, when corporations started controlling interest.
"The Intelligence Protection Act, passed in 1982, imposes maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and $50,000 in fines for unauthorized disclosure by government employees with access to classified information."
They can get off the hook if they say that someone higher up "authorized" it. And that would be . .
(As an aside, re: Ari -- does Press Secretary even count as "senior"? I didn't think it did, at least I've never heard that phrase used for Press Sec. -- Hunter
I believe that when a story broke before about how this administration goes about giving "anonymous" "background" information, Ari would talk with reporters, but only as a "Senior Administration Official". So I think the label applies to him as well.
First - the two theories about the latest WaPo leaker: (1) S/He is doing it at the behest of the WH to get ahead of the story; (2) S/He is doing it to "get" the one who authorized it in the beginning.
Second - theories about whodunnit: The idea to do this had to come from someone with (1) access to CIA information; and (2) access to the press; and (3) a vindictive nature.
The vindictive (I'll fuck him like he's never been fucked before) nature is clearly Rove, Bush and Cheney. Looking for something to discredit Wilson could be Condi's style. I read in one of the (now many!) articles on the topic that the people who leaked Plame's name to Novak were doing it to imply Wilson was the beneficiary of some sort of nepotism for having gotten the assignment, that their intention wasn't necessarily to "out" Plame, but to discredit Wilson.
My guess on the WaPo leaker is that it is Andy Card. Card is on record being worried about Rove's power in the West Wing.
Ari has to be featured prominently somewhere in this story. The Whitehouse conveniently got rid of him just as the first stories were breaking and he no longer speaks for the government.
From John Dean:
On July 22, White House press secretary Scott McClellan was asked about the Novak column. Offering only a murky, non-answer, he claimed that neither "this President or this White House operates" in such a fashion. He added, "there is absolutely no information that has come to my attention or that I have seen that suggests that there is any truth to that suggestion. And, certainly, no one in this White House would have given authority to take such a step."
See how he says "my attention, or that I have seen"? Obviously, the WH thought that this was going to be big so they got rid of Ari as initial damage control. Ari might not have been directly involved, but he knew enough that they had to get rid of him.
Plus Rove is smart, but he was stupid enough to put AWOL Bush in a flight suit with socks stuffed down his pants with the sign "Mission Accomplished" waving behind him.
Also, if Bush goes down, doesn't Powell look good as an alternative to Clark to the GOP?
John Dean's commentary should be parsed for clues everytime he writes or speaks as he was a government lawyer, knows the laws, knows how corrupt government works, and was instrumental in bringing down Nixon.
Basically the Bushies are all liars, even Powell has been made to lie to cover for Bush. They are arrogant and think that they are immune to everything, and own the press.
Lastly, given the ultra loyalty and secrecy prized by this adminstration how can both the leaker and the other two keep their jobs? So someone must have been chosen by BushCheneyRove to leak this story once it became known as the only way to save this adminstration from total meltdown.
A Senior Abenaki Official (SAO) has suggest that my comments may be overly harsh and unfair ... to rocks.
I overlooked the fact that the DC is trying to make its 2nd bat, and that getting out in front on this, and painting all the other Dems as (what did that fellow write? Aah, Democrat apologists are a MAJOR part of the problem. yes, the compeating campaigns (and the rest of the party) are just apologists, will result in yet another cathartic frenzy of ... cash.
The quarterly financial filing is the actual race being run, at least by the DC. I hope that the rest of the campaigns are run by more serious people. Felonies in high office is a play in many acts, that takes time to reach climax and resolution.
I liked the line upthread about Nixon, that he never set up a hit on the wife of one of his enemies.
Remember how "yellowcake" was turned into a rightie joke? People watch the news, but by and large they don't think about it. They'll wait until Monday to let Rush and O'Reilly tell them what to think about this.
You know, previous reports have indicated that just about everyone in the cabinet has a reason for disliking the power-grabbing Karl Rove, whose fingers are in every pie.
I don't think it's Powell. I don't think Powell would be privvy to the conversations. He is not part of the club there.
Let's all remind ourselves that the thing which finally, finally brought Tricky Dick down was illegitimate use of CIA types.
Not exactly the same thing, but, breaking laws with regards to people in the CIA is a big no-no and for good reasons.
Let's all keep on target: Wilson's wife was working in the "WMD" arena, that is, on counter-proliferation efforts. At least this is what has been in printed publicly. Taking her out was a blow to a vital effort. I hope whoever did gets his/her head on the block.
And for an administration so concerned about countering proliferation of strategic weapons, this particular blow to that effort is particularly bad.
What I don't understand was what the White House leakers hoped to gain by blowing Plame's cover. Yes, I know there was the motive of stupid revenge against her husband but that couldn't be the entire motive could it?
Abenaki, you will destroy your reputation, along with sympathy for your cause, if you keep up your knee-jerk attacks on Dean. Get over it. Just because he's first doesn't mean the others are waiting. Dean is just first, attuned to the Internet and ready to pounce.
Everyone is enraged by this. Dean is out front, and more power to him. I'm not a Deaniac, just a concerned American. Don't discredit yourself Abenaki, your cause is worthy but may get snagged with you when people dismiss you.
The deal here is that this in an 'open secret'. Who these two characters are is pretty easy to surmise. Two points:
1. Wilson has openly referred to the political office as the source for this. Senior White House Official #1 = Karl Rove.
2. This story was shopped around to at least 6 washington journalists. Who's in charge of shopping stories to journalists. Senior White House Official #2 = Ari Fleischer.
Those are your boys.
The Senior Administration Official who is pushing this open secret into the sunlight? Has to be Tenet. He has not only forwarded an official request to DoJ, but he's put this back on the front page to box Ashcroft in so he can't bury this.
As said above, don't $@*! with the CIA.
Abenaki, you will destroy your reputation ...
From this one should infer that the DC isn't milking the Angery Young White (redundant) Maile (redundant) Digeratii (made redundant by the collapse of the dot-bomb economy) demographic to make some moola?
Or maybe that this isn't wicked serious, leading towards Sam Ervin moments in the prime of Miss Brodie's 2004, and any idiot is free to milk it for the free air-time, like the bulk of the play-along morons in the SCLM?
I did enjoy your Bill O'FreeRyeLixer "Shut Up" a couple of threads back though. I'm touched by your interest in my shadow though. Here is your Abenaki word for the day: zôbaskidôba. It means a true natured man, an honest man. I don't like Dean. I don't like any of the staff who basically flunked out of the Maine Democratic Party (serious Field and GOTV incompetence, donor list theft, etc.) to go work for a conservative Democrat, who incidently, has more "issues with Indians" than any Northern New England Governor in recent memory.
Adio.
Abenaki, there was far more than a "shut up" in that discussion. I'm just tired of your Dean bashing, on any issue, because of your perceived slight by him involving Indian affairs.
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