Christy You’re GOOD!

FITZ

ROOTZ

REDD

JANE

PATCH

who am I leaving out?

Thanks, Christy. MTP doesn’t air here for another 10 min or so.

Timmeh the accomplice

So basically, Novak thinks that Tenet should have protected Valerie by outing her to Novak. Got it. Geesh, what an ass.

So, should the wingers hold this decrepit crypt keeper to the same standards they would hold the New York Times to?

Naw.

OT.

The rightwing doctor, the NYC “Townhouse Terrorist” who saw evil in the heart of Hillary Clinton, FDR and George Soros is dead.

-GSD

Novak says he went to his primary source to find out why they would send Wilson to Niger on this mission…

Didn’t Novak once say he (Novak) didn’t ask about how Wilson got sent to Niger, but that “they gave it to me”? This directly contradicts his earlier story.

so Novak hasn’t talked to his primary source since that interview? Interesting! Somebody not commonly accessed by even folk like Novak?

Don’t blame me, I was just the messenger.

“they gave me the name” from the Newsday article

Yup, he sure does sound like a messenger. “Here Bobby, take this and run with it. Good boy.”
Novak was sent on an errand. Anyone smell a conspiracy in just those words? I do.
(but IANAL, just a citizen.)

Yes, and Russert also failed to ask Swopa’s questions while he had Novak in the not-so-hot seat. SIGH

Redd

Very good pick up on the ID of source will come out sooner or later, probably sooner.

Something is in the air.

Novak got in front of the Wilson presser and rode it like a surfer catching a wave. he clearly knows a lot about what is going on behind the scenes and has some guesses about the timing thereof

Are we sure the source cannot be Shrub?

lhp, wouldn’t Novak (and everybody else) know to expect the Wilsons’ filing just b/c the statute was about to run?

lhp: that’s long been my suspicion: the Preznit his own bad self!

Are we sure the source cannot be Shrub?
NOT a partisan gunslinger? BWAHAHAHA.

“/04 G/J (Did anyone catch this date? I missed it…)”

It was also February 2004.

It was when he said that in order not to publish her name he would have needed someone (and, in his opinion, why should it not have been George Tenet himself?) to call and say that her life would be in danger if her name was published, that I walked out of the room.

I’m not a George Tenet fan, but is it really the job of the head of the CIA to personally call reporters and ask that they not publish names?

If the primary source is shrub, it explains SOOO much. It explains all the leaking about the mechanics of the declassifying the the WH staff knew nothing about.

it explains why the origainal source cannot be charged with the underlying crime.

It explains odd the behavior of both Woodward and Novak.

it explains why Scooter is not having trouble raising $.

It explains a lot of things.

Please, if we have definatively eliminated shrub as a possibility, tell me how we came to that conclusion

even Judy Miller, who also was given Valerie’s status as a CIA agent, did not publish that information. Novak should be held in greater contempt than Judy.

At what point in our society did we decide that taking no responsibility for the consequences of our actions was even remotely acceptable? For shame.

Accountability is for suckers and little people.

Op99

novak does not think Shrub is partisan. Novak has long touted and seemed to genuinely buy all that “uniter not diveder” “work with both sides of the aisle while in Texas” crap.

I always thought when he said that he was signalling that it was Shrub not Darth as most would expect

lhp: recall that Woodward said he allegedly told in passing Walter Pincus the name of his source but Pincus denies hearing it. Believe me, if Woodward had told Pincus it was the Preznit, he sure as hell would have remembered that. I doubt if Woodward would have shared so cavalierly such a bombshell at all…

Eli @ 20

Seems to me that you can’t get much littler than Shrub these days, unless you’re Dick Cheney.

lhp –

I left two more responses in the downstairs thread. If you want, I can send you some of the obscure stuff in my files — VIP memos, and things like that. Mostly, the best stuff can still be found on the Web — although the Rachel Berry piece was locked up behind the FindLaw firewall about two months after I’d started circulating the link. The Wayback Machine is a wunnerful thing . . .

ckcentral at yahoo dot com

Here’s a question that’s bugging me. Someone involved in this mess must have very carefully planned everyone’s actions. They believe they’ve danced right up to the line between legal and illegal activity, but over it. Most of the upper echelon of the WH are not lawyers. Not Bush, Cheney, or Rove.

So who planned this? Libby? Addington? Gonzalez (who was WH Counsel then)? Miers?

This was no accident.

As I said on my blog this morning:

The 1% Solution
So, let’s see we’ve gone from nearly 5 years ago…

“If there’s a one percent chance something bad might happen we have to act.”

To this:

“Everything is bad, let’s implement policies where there’s a 1% chance it might work.”

My vote is Gonzales

recall that on the day last fall when Fitz indicted Libby, he first paid a brief courtesy call to GWB’s personal lawyer and the Preznit certainly seemed grumpy as all hell at his brief press statement that afternoon.

“Novak says he doesn’t think he outed Valerie – thinks Aldrich Ames did so previously.”

You missed the most compelling evidence that this claim is utter horseshit - Ames’ outings were committed in 1985. He was arrested in 1994, which presumably put him out of the outing business. The CIA continued to use Valerie long after 1994. So QED, you lying scumbag Novakula.

bobo

Seems to me that you can’t get much littler than Shrub these days, unless you’re Dick Cheney.

Well, I meant “little people” in Bushian terms of “the help”, i.e., everyone who is not rich and important.

But Bush is absolutely, as a friend would put it, a wee tiny of a man.

Ames may have indeed outted Valerie to the Soviets (remember them?) but the lovely lady could have continued her spy work in other countries … risky but doable

I M Bobo, I’ve never heard that before. Ames spilled his secrets in 1985? Hell Valerie Plame just started her CIA training then. He could not have known her name.

Looking at Novak on Tim’s fake news show is revolting. Russert has been smacking Novak’s schmuck for far too long. Geeze Tim, I do have to concede, you are a primo jerker of the joint. And not just Bobby Novak’s.

lhp 21, POTUS is going to sit down for “a long conversation” off the record with Bob Novak? Doesn’t seem like Bushie’s style to spend much time with the peasants, even his own peasants. I do see your point that Novak could justify in his own mind that Bush is not partisan.

Great debriefing, Christy.
Typo alert: primary source said Wilson’s wife works for Novak, should be “…works for CIA.” And the sentence that starts “And stuff like the information that perhaps Scooter Libby…” is confusing to me, did something drop out?

As Christy notes, nothing is more frustrating for a prosecutor than the firm conviction subjects are guilty as hell but he’s constrained from doing anything about it. My late f-i-l was a county prosecutor and that’s a truth from the lowest level of justice all the way up to the halls of power in Washington.

And totally OT, but when we get back to “casting” The Valerie Plame Story, I nominate Uma Thurman for Valerie…see today’s parade.com.

Re: the Pincus thing. I never took that too seriously. No matter who the source was, I think it would have stood out in Pincus’s mind.

The sloppy sharing of secrets like that seems so in charracter for Shrub.

Even that psychophant Woodward describes shrub as having a “quick joshing manner which at times borders on impulsive” in Plan of Attack.

Which is the suck up’s code for, shrub has diarrea of the mouth.

wasn’t part of judy’s story that she wanted to run with the plame info, but her editor wouldn’t bite?

TheOtherWA #32

I didn’t know either (not exactly) till a minute before I posted. I recalled that the Ames case went down a pretty long time ago. So I googled Aldrich Ames.

Google is out friend.

bobo

Shorter Cheney and Neo-conartist philosophy:

Let’s implement policies that advance the cause of the top 1% of the nation.

-GSD

I didn’t expect much of an ‘interview’ from Timmy, but - as usual - he lived down to expectations.

What he is alarmingly doing, as so many faux journalists (not excluding Novak) is diverting public attention from what is the real crux of this story: namely, that KARL ROVE knowingly and with malice aforethought revealed the identity of a covert C.I.A. agent/operative.

We can discuss who sent Wilson on the trip; or the qualifications of Wilson (they were many); or the identity of Novak’s ‘primary’ source….but all of this is utterly beside the point and is an implicit participation in dealing with the fringes of this story.

Repeat after me:

KARL ROVE is a traitor.

KARL ROVE belongs in a jail cell awaiting a firing squad.

GEORGE BUSH is a liar (for many other reasons than just this, of course) but because he pledged that he wouldn’t countenance treason in his administration and not only has he countenanced it, he has underwritten it.

And I agree with the previous posts: Novak clearly knew that the Wilson press conference/lawsuit was coming up and he pushed in front of the line, so to speak, to get his smarmy-ass mea culpa (not) on record.

Disgraceful.

David Johnston of the NYT, who covers the Plame case, wrote the Aldrich Ames book. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if that was true, he might have picked up on it.

WTF???

For what it’s worth, I think “W” is Novak’s source. Novak alluded to it some months ago when he said “President Bush could end all this speculation and reveal the source” (I’m paraphrasing here).

Also, could our president not have put on a more embarrassing performance at the G8 with his pig obsession and lecturing Putin that Russian government should model itself on Iraq’s? He really is just an idiot, isn’t he? I used to wonder if it was an act to make himself seem down to earth and folksy. No more. He’s a moron.

God, what a rogues gallery of blowhards, windbags, thieves, miscreants, dissemblers, prevaricators, mooks, goons, rubes and dolts we have running the nation.

I wouldn’t let these puds run my pizza shop.

-GSD

Is there no one alive who can drive a stake through the heart of Novakula?

I still hope for good things out of Fitz, but is he our only hope in this entire mess? (Maybe the civil suit will stir up some hidden dirt? Fingers crossed.)

I’ll wager that if W’s IQ ever comes out, it’s double-digit.

He ultimately gave the Soviet Union the names of every American agent working in their country.

Wikipedia is my friend. :P

Ok, so Ames started outing his fellow CIA operatives in 1985, but only those in the Soviet Union. Since it collapsed in 89, personally, I doubt very much Ames could have known who Plame was.

Jane at 41 — I know. Novak was so weird this morning. Amato is working on a clip — if you haven’t seen it, you really have to watch to believe that Novakula was throwing all this crap and out and hoping it would all stick with no fact checking. And Russert — no follow up whatsoever on the Ames point or otherwise.

Op99

“long conversation” is a relative term. may be the longest conversation Novak ever got from Shrub.

But yeah, after the 16 words blew up in their faces, they were all looking to get control of the story. So, it would not surprise me that Shrub was enlisted to charm a reliable like Novak. Remember they were trying like hell to sell the story. condi on Ar Force One, Scooter with judy, BUT NOBODY WAS PRINTING

So, it would not surprise me at all if they used access to shrub to push Novak over the line to actually print.

It may be that the “long rambling” sit down was the bait or even the Quid pro quo. Maybe it was only supposed to look like an accident, so Novack and Woodward would feel guilty and not want to blab because they flatter themse3lves to thinnk that shrub trusts them enough to let his hair down with them

Lotus,

I’d wager it would be around 90-tops.

That sounds about right, Rushton.

Very interesting…every time I try to send a comment to Meet the Press, my browser shuts down.

Here’s just one of the many things scorching my jeans about Novacula’s story:

By his own account, Harlow –the official CIA spokesperson–told him after inquiring within the company in no uncertain terms that Wilson was NOT sent by his wife. (Novack says Harlow used the word “facilitated” but I don’t think even his origianl accounts said that, and Harlow certainly didn’t say that). Novack immediately says it was later “confirmed” she DID send him, because that is what the Senate Intelligence Report indicated.(and Pumpkin, to his credit, challenged him on that [pointing out that was never a conclusion of the full panel, BTW.)

But Novack obviously didn’t know about the Senate Intelligence investigation at the time. He would have printed his original assertion, then, with the official CIA spokesperson denying the central point that Wilson was sent by his wife based on his unnamed original source with only Karl Rove confirming with either “I heard that too” (Rove’s version) or “I know that, too” (Novack’s version). And, of course there was not even a mention of Harlow’s explicit denial in the original “reporting” or since.

So on the next stop of his “Dead and Loving It” tour, I hope someone asks the Count why he ran with a story not just despite the objections of the CIA, but when the CIA had actually denied the premise that his wife had in any way initiated Wilson’s trip.

Oh, and one other little thing…Novak makes a big point that Harlow said it was very unlikely that Plame would ever be sent oveerseas again. Novak took that as somehow a carte blanche that somehow made it all ok. Just out a CIA “operative” on the chance she MIGHT not be used abroad again. Talk about your self-fulfilling fucking prophecies!

Diane at 40, I have to defend the job Timmeh did today; he had Novak in the chair, and he asked questions about facts of Novak. Did you want to see Novak sit there and editorialize about how blameless the administration is in the Plame outing, or did you want to see him pinned down about his part in it?

Novak was and is a liar.

No credibility– creepy and all over the place this morning. I used to ‘respect’ him, but then again, I was always taught to respect my elders.

Never again, until they earn respect.

Rushton at 42

novak also said

If you want to know who Woodward’s source is, ask Bush

What might explain Plame/Wilson not including Novak in their lawsuit?

So Novak revealed the name of his primary source to the grand jury and Fitzpatrick but he won’t reveal it publicly because he had a “tacit” understanding with the source not to reveal his name. His hemming and hawing about how his attorney told him he’d lose the case so it was ok, according to Novak, to reveal his source to the grand jury should disgust every fellow “journalist” especially those who fought the issue in court and even went to jail rather than reveal their sources. Every news organization should ban this jerk from their pages or airwaves. It is clear that Novak is out for Novak (and his buddies) and no one else. Disgusting is the only word that really describes him. Or of course “douchebag”, ala Jon Stewart…

He might just be one of the John D’ohs mperloe.

What might explain Plame/Wilson not including Novak in their lawsuit?

I don’t think Novak did anything technically illegal. Unethical and sleazy, absolutely. But leaking *to* Novak was the crime - once he has the info, it’s fair game.

That’s my non-law-talking-guy understanding of it, anyway…

The funniest thing is, if the primary source WAS shrub, Novak did not think the President of the United States was a sufficiently knowledgable source to rely on and had to go check with others.

Now normally when a source tell you something, I understand you are supposed to get confirmation, but when the President ells you something about his own government, that needs checking?

hillarious

GSD sed of Novakula: decrepit crypt keeper

Thanks, G, that’s the best description of him I’ve ever seen. Also encompasses the googly eyes that make him look so creepy.

The founding fathers never meant for legislators, not to mention the behind-the-scenes leeches, to set up shop in DC for their entire adult lives. Citizens need to do honest work, too. Let’s throw the bastards out!

I wouldn’t let these puds run my pizza shop.
-GSD

And your customers appreciate that, I’m sure!

Ok, so I tried another browser and got to the web form…when I submitted the form, I got an error page full of code. I can only hope that millions of people are trying to call bullshit on Novacula.

The Plame suit has John Does 1-10. I assume the identities of at least some of those John Does are known to Plaintiff at this time, but thta Plaintiff does not have sufficient admissable evidence against the John Does to survive a motion for judgement on the pleadings and so, has kept those allegations out of the case for the time being.

After taking some discovery, plaintiff can move to ammend the complaint to add allegations against new named defendants. In the meantime, naming them as John Does defeats the statute of limitations

At what point in our society did we decide that taking no responsibility for the consequences of our actions was even remotely acceptable?

Snicker.

Conservatism is a handy way to avoid responsibility.

You can always blame God or the “realities of the marketplace” for practically anything.

Did anyone hear Novak call journalist “THUMB SUCKERS” ?HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

froggermarch! long time no…

When Ames was outing CIA agents left and right, Valerie was probably still in training -with her AK-47s.

It is time for a Jack Nicholson/Joker strategy.

“This town needs an enema.”

-GSD

CK if you are still here,
Just went back and read your comments at te end of te last thread.

Actually the reason I want the quotes, is that the first chapter is a “why we fight” kinda pep talk to get the lawyers and poll watchers all jazzed up to go out there and protect the vote.

Glad to see we are both thinking the same way.

CHS - I loved the picture from the last thread. A friend has a sweet Rotty who always babysits her foals when they are very young. Not exactly lion and lamb, but always worth a smile to see. Now that I think of it, maybe the lion and lamb references dropped a few words. Maybe that poor lion of reference has actually succumbed to the venom of a smug watching rvl?

Tryggth - if you are still around - don’t make me go to the Corner. I don’t much care who had the “once more into the breach” speech, but I would like to know who thought it was science fiction. Is one of the Losst Boys growing up?

Betcha they could give some Star Trek quotes for you on voting lhp - you can email and ask. *g*

The only one I can even partly remember is the more depressing reference to *if it was important they wouldn’t let us do it* or somthing like.

Rice is the poster girl for the administration’s complete incapacity to predict such mysteries as whether the sun will rise in the east or the west. I say we chip in for a magic 8 ball. Statisticians I have spoken with claim that this predicative tool will increase our foreign policy effectiveness at least threefold.

lhp - the wingnut who wrote that piece — he does realize it pools almost ALL the Republicans as neocons, right? That or liberals.

op99@53: While I do give TR credit for even having the creep on the program, again, I go back to my central thesis on all this:

the whole Novak discussion is entirely and completely extraneous to the actual, bone fide crime that was committed here. An undercover CIA operative’s identity was deliberately leaked to a reporter whom the leaker (KARL ROVE) knew full well would publish it. Let’s not take our eyes off the ball.

Putting this another way:

I like to subject the Bush Administration’s crimes to what I call the “Clinton Test”. I’m sure many readers have done this. Comparing reactions then with reactions now, in our enlightened Republican-run junta.

During the Clinton Administration, to cite one example, when Bill and Hillary decided to expand the White House Christmas card list, there was a special congressional oversight committee appointed to review it. There were constant, non-stop panels, committees and investigations. Remember?

So, giving the KARL ROVE treason story the “Clinton Test”….how do you think Republicans would’ve reacted if, say, James Carville had revealed the name of a covert CIA operative to a cooperative, big mouth journalist? They would have tarred and feathered him in Lafayette Park. Tell me I’m wrong….

Hypocrisy.

Conservatism is a handy way to avoid responsibility.

Amen to that . . .

You can always blame God or the “realities of the marketplace” for practically anything.

I thought Liberal Evil Doer’s were to blame for every bad thing that happened.

Or is it the Evil Dewar’s?

But is America ready to “handle the TRUTH?”

“Novak now backtracking on the “they gave me the name” from the Newsday article – misstatement on Novak’s part, he says. (So, he apparently did say it, he’s now saying that he just said it incorrectly. Oh. Okay.)”

Actually, he’s backtracking from saying it twice. Give Russert credit for that one, he did his usual ambush quote thing… showed the first quote, Novak said he misstated it, then he showed another quote where Novak said exactly the same thing again later. Novak again said that he had misstated his answer but he looked kind of constipated as he did so. I don’t think he much liked the back to back quote thing.

Gee, I hate it for him.

So, can I conclude we have not been able to definatively eliminate Shrub as a suspect?

Cause I know Emptywheel is pretty convinced it is Addington and I take her opinion very seriously.

I thought maybe I was missing something that outright made it impossible or farfetched for Shrub to be the primary source for Woodward and Novak

w refuses to answer 3 questions on Lebanon’s call for a cease fire. ratb…….

Diane, by the “Clinton Test”, Bush would have been impeached at least 5-10 times over by now, if not summarily executed.

lhp –

more links –

ACLU publications

http://www.aclu.org/votingrigh.....tions.html

alternet — 2004 GOP vote supression

http://www.alternet.org/story/19917

Diane at 73, I agree with your basic premise, it’s just that I don’t think Novak is the guy to pursue it with. He’s a fact witness; when he’s on the “stand”, get him on the record about facts. And given Novak’s bloviating and misdirecting this week, it was absolutely relevant to have him on the show. I agree with Christy that Timmeh’s followup was crappy (as usual with Republicans), but he was on the right track with the direction of the interview.

Good Morning Mary: You are referring to the NYTimes article I posted on the last thread? What could have possesed them to publish that peice of piffle. The argument conflates things as well. That article is NOT an example of intellectual rigor.

Dianne

Welcome. Your name is new to me. Is that X-mas card story true? That’s a hoot!

Ah for the days of too much Congressional oversight

Angie @ 78,

In all fairness to “W”, he can’t answer the questions because he is too stupid to understand them in the first place. He’s still thinking about that wild boar he had for dinner and maybe wondering if there are wild cows out there too.

oink oink, mooooo, smoke em out of their caves.

yer right, Rushton!

If it was Bush, I think it could have been a stupid thing on his part, and once he did it and Rove or Cheney found out, the rest was put together as an attempt to muddy water and make sure there were so many layers it would never get pegged back to Bush, especially not before an election.

Re Novak - I do not understand why all the MSM lets him off the hook over Harlow. Novak sure doesn’t passs the jeune fille test. What DC or other competent reporter, who knows that they are getting ready to publish something about a CIA agent and is checking with the CIA, wouldn’t hold back identity after the CIA says, in essence, dear God in heaven don’t publish her name.

That goes so beyond the boundaries, and yet they all just sit there talking nicey to him about it.

See how the region is becoming tranquil and peaceful.

New reports that Turkey will “get tough” with the Kurds.

Can anyone say “regional meltdown”?

http://english.aljazeera.net/N.....D6629E.htm

-GSD

Eli –

If the truth about Bush and 9/11 and Iraq and all of the other crimes perpetrated by his den of thieves were known by the American People, a hundred years from now little children would still be pointing out the pock marks on the Washington Monument, where the firing squads missed.

Op99

Timmeh was on track with the quote ambush, the 2 count em’ 2 times Novak said that “they gave me the name”

I think ole’ Tim knows something and is trying to highlight it. This is one of those days when I am firmly convinced that it is all hidden in plain sight and that I am just too blind to see it. Arrrgh

Rove gave Novak Plame’s name….

Novak claims three sources — his (unnamed) primary source, Rove, and Harlow.

“Novak says he testified under oath that he was not given Valerie’s name directly from his primary source.”

And Novak obviously knew Plame’s name when he spoke to Harlow, because Harlow told him that the story was wrong, and not to print the name.

Ergo, the only other source of the name “Plame” had to be Karl Rove — Novak’s claim that he got it from “Who’s Who” does not hold water, because there is nothing in the listing that suggests that “Valerie” maintained her maiden name professionally.

CK than ks for the links. I clicked through and emailed the sites to myself

The Aldrich Ames reference was merely chum for the trailer trash authoritarian cult who know Bush The Magnificent can do no wrong. It wasn’t the traitor Novak, it was the traitor Ames. Nice to know traitors credit each other.

looseheadprop@82: I actually heard that reference (to the Christmas card investigation) given by Mark Shields on “The Newshour” about two months ago.

So: have I researched it? NO.

Do I believe Mark Shields? Implicitly.

At any rate: even if MS was exaggerating, I think the spirit of the comment remains intact, even if it’s not factually accurate

Paul

nice pickup. Plus, Novak getting it from Who’s Who would not explain how Judy got it

I despise Dan Bartlett– a Mehlman wannabe not interested in saving the world at all. (on Wulfie now)

where is Snowjob, anyhow?

re-gion-al melt-down, jest a part of the plan.

Almost August, puhleeze go to Crawford for the summertime.

Diane,
I just think that’s sooooo funny. Christmas card list. I love it

Christy, I’m glad you brought this topic up because for several days I’ve been wanting to write you and tell you not to blame yourself for the disappointment a lot of us feel in PJF for letting Rove and Novak off the hook. It it no way affects the wonderful reporting FDL did on the CIA Leak Case. In fact, a few months ago when everyone was in a fever pitch that Rove would be indicted, I printed out a great piece one of you two gals did on a Rove timeline and gave it to my friends who don’t blog. You showed convincingly with documentation at every step of the way how Rove kept changing his story, and I thought he was sunk. For whatever reason PJF backed off. I don’t think it’s to catch the bigger fish out there: no one in the WH is going to throw anyone else there under the bus, they’re all together on this. And I think the Wilsons have given up on PJF.

I had one of those forehead-slapping moments the other night when I commented on another blog. I said that a DOJ lawyer should never have been appointed in the first place. Maybe they didn’t change the name from independent prosecutor to special prosecutor for nothing. I made the biggest wrong backing of all time. I’m a non-afiliated voter, and I voted for that clown in the WH in 2000 completely on the basis that his administration was not going to get into nation building. Sometimes I can’t sit down because I’ve kicked myself so much over that!

“Ken Mehlman, played brilliantly by Hillary Swank.”

Stephanie Miller

Had this been the Clinton Administration, Gingrich would have formed a Congressional Irregular Army and would have moved on the Whitehouse by now.

By the way, Gingrich, that assturd was pushing his latest WWIII meme so that he and his Republicants can ride that new pony of fear into electoral victory.

War and more war. It is the endless war for enless peace that Gore Vidal warned us about.

-GSD

is Dan Bartlett married yet? (didn’t think so!)

Morning lhp - yep, that article. What a waste of space, but then again, it’s not like there are important issues that could use prudent discussion.

Next week maybe they can have a piece explaining how all the now recognized axises- axi-axii-axix? intersect. With drawings. Eschering in a new understanding for us all.

I don’t know that Bush is ruled out or in - but then again, I didn’t know Emptywheel thought it might be Addington or that there was Congressional oversight of the Clinton Xmas card list. No one ever tells me anything.

With the Middle East in flames and the planet possibly on the threshold of the last world war, both houses of Congress adjourned last Thursday for a four day weekend. Don’t I just love it! I fantasized that the legislative and executive branches might have actually worked through the weekend on a brainstorming session to look at ways to save us. Well yes… I know… that assumes these guys are in possession of brains in the first place. The picture I have of this weeked is one of our leaders, martinis in hand, very dry of course, cocktail-weenies up their a**, standing around the pool and BBQ, making deals with each other in the midst of the Mideast chaos.

last I saw, Emptywheel was fairly sure it was Armitage as the primary souce … Addington is a new (but not astonishing name) to add the list …

Tony Snow has walked into a deep, sticky puddle. He’s worse than Snotty Scotty - he’s really quick on his feet but his condescension (reminds me of Rummy)and circumnavigations of the truth really piss me off the way Snotty never did.

OFG - Stephanie Miller, my hero.

The Aldrich Ames reference was merely chum for the trailer trash authoritarian cult who know Bush The Magnificent can do no wrong. It wasn’t the traitor Novak, it was the traitor Ames. Nice to know traitors credit each other.

I assume they also point out that Aldrich Ames was a prominent Democrat, right?

Wild Bill Kristol plans on fighting the terrorists until the last soldier dies, not the last journalist, the last soldier.

The problem in the Muddled East is that the US hasn’t been “tough enough” for War Mongering Bill Kristol.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/...../#comments

-GSD

Back to war gaming this:

Suppose it goes like this (and jump in and show me why this can’t work)

Even before SOTU, CIA (and WIlson?) try to keep the 16 words out. They fail, but WH is alerted that there are those who know a fraud has been committed in the SOTU.

Wilson starts talking to the press and reports questioning the 16 words start showing up in the MSM.

libby starts his notebook/dossier on Wilson

Libby, Rove, Cheney start quietly shopping the story around about the trip being a boondogle, nobody prints

WIlson writes the Op ED. Now Everbody gets inthe act. Condi, State, the whole Air Force One crowd, everybody is trying to get the press to look at Wilson rather than the 16 words. Still nobody bites.

They decide to use reliable friends of the Admin. Those who will never take even a grain of salt with anything GWB says.

So, Shrub casually drops it into conversation with Woodward. But woodward thinks that poor dimwitted Shrub ws being too trusting with insider Bob and doesn’t publish.

Later, they invite Novak for a deep background chat with shrub who drops it again. This time Novak bites. Yeah, I think then Rove with the confirmation pushed it. I think that conversaion had lots more than the quote attributed to/admitted by Rove.

Bush was sent in to direct their attention to Wilson and Wilson’s wife. Whether he was meant to do it the way Condi did, just skirting the line w/o crossing over and just couldn’t pull it off, or whether he outed her on purpose, I will never know.

He did however, accidently, at least I pray it was acciently, reveal that we were tracking Osama from his cellphone battery while shooting his mouth off on TV. So, there is some precident there for him not being able to talk about a sensitive subject w/o blabbing the confidential stuff (I’d like to see him accomplish even one Fitz presser)

So, assuming he just botched it, and outed her by accident. Once the rest of the WH knew that, you can see why they would get into all this Nixonian “if the president declassifies on the spot, it is legal” bullshit.

Mary says: “Eschering in a new understanding for us all.”
July 16th, 2006 at 9:33 am

That’s a very artful play on words, Mary. *g*

imad moustapha on cnn now.

escalation, not peace, is the m.o. from our administration.

this administration is killing the world.

these hateful people created and feed the GWOT– it’s a stupid term in and of itself. Terror is terror, it’s a method of warfare. There is no difference between the bombs or WP falling from our jets and the poor fool strapping on a bomb. People die.

*ilson

You may be right. I am terrible with names, but it did start with an “A”

That I am sure of. She definitely did not have a suspect who started with a “B”

Blog whore and broken record alert, but I think it would be a very good thing if we made Scooter Libby and everyone around him radioactive.

looseheadprop at 77:

“Cause I know Emptywheel is pretty convinced it is Addington and I take her opinion very seriously.”

Hmmm…I must of missed something there. I was of the impression that Emptywheel thought Armitage was the last unnamed source.

I’m still hesitant on Armitage. My bet is on Hadley.

20 Americans picked up in Lebanon. Team dropped off to organize evacuation acc to Barbaraaaa Brenda Starr on CNN.

Christy

Novak gave his dates in his column this week:

Inteview 10/7 (the same day WH turned in subpoenaed materials to Abu G)