My favorite jaw-hits-floor moment occurred when RNC chieftain Ken Mehlman (one of Rove's Sithian minions) announced on a cable news show that the Republicans would have responded in a very different fashion if such a scandal had cropped up under Clinton. According to Mehlman, conservatives would not have "pre-judged" and would not have used the controversy in fundraising letters!
Good freaking Lord, is he kidding? Does he really expect even the most robotic Republican to accept that outrageous historical rewrite? Does he really think that even the dimmest dimwits will believe that conservatives did not use Whitewater as a fundraising mechanism?
The Republican talking points on Rove-gate have been made public. You can find them -- along with an invaluable point-by-point response -- on the LeftCoaster.
Even so, Fox News continues to repeat the talking points, providing further indication that Murdoch's "news" channel is nothing more than a Republican marionette. According to Fox antireporter Carl Cameron, Bush never actually stated that he would fire any staffer involved with Plame leak, In fact, Dubya made that very statement, on tape. (Al Franken played it this morning.)
The lies keep piling up. The rightists allege that Joe Wilson was a hard-core left-winger; he wasn't. They say that Valerie Plame was not an undercover officer; she was. They say that Joe Wilson falsely claimed that Cheney had sent him to Niger; Wilson said no such thing.
Unsurprisingly, this last whopper made the Wall Street Journal:
For Mr. Rove is turning out to be the real "whistleblower" in this whole sorry pseudo-scandal. He's the one who warned Time's Matthew Cooper and other reporters to be wary of Mr. Wilson's credibility. He's the one who told the press the truth that Mr. Wilson had been recommended for the CIA consulting gig by his wife, not by Vice President Dick Cheney as Mr. Wilson was asserting on the airwaves.As usual, the WSJ editorialists are peddling the purest elephant shit. Talking Points Memo proves the point handily.
The most amusing RNC spin point holds that Rove did not divulge the name of Valerie Plame during his meeting with Cooper. Instead, His Satanic Majesty simply referred to "Wilson's wife" -- a distinction without a difference. But even this exercise in casuistry is undone by the fact that a Novak quote holds that his source offered up Plame by name -- and did so without prompting.
Lies, lies, lies. We should hold a contest to determine which falsehood is the most brazen.
But the most important question is: Will the lies stick? Will the RNC disinformation campaign succeed?
I fear so. Frankly, many of our fellow Americans aren't just brainwashed -- they've had their brains scooped out with a melon baller. Karl's minions can probably get away with any damn claim, however untrue. Hell, they could say that Plame's identity was leaked by Joe Wilson. Reality no longer matters. Half of our citizenry will swallow whatever pachyderm piss Fox chooses to squirt down their throats.
(Update: When I wrote the above -- "Hell, they could say that Plame's identity was leaked by Joe Wilson" -- I thought I was being humorously outrageous. Turns out that Fox News has made that very assertion! So, at least, I have learned from Billmon. What will Fox claim next? Will they say that Joe Wilson is the son of Aleister Crowley? That Valerie Wilson is Jimmy Hoffa in disguise? How can they top themselves?)
Miller time. The comparison is striking: The reporter for the New York Times -- that bete noir of the right -- went to jail rather than divulge her sources. Meanwhile, right-winger Robert Novak apparently sang like Caruso on speed (or so claims Murray Waas). Any doctor examining Novak's balls would need a microscope.
But why does Judith Miller remain imprisoned, if Rove's the source? After all, he's as out as out can be by this point.
Perhaps she had a source other than Rove. Novak specified that he had more than one source. Who might be the other leaker or leakers? Fitzgerald has interviewed both Ari Fleischer and Bush himself.
It has also been alleged that Miller -- rarely considered a paragon of journalistic virtue -- has exposed her sources before. So why is she going to the mat now?
7 comments:
joe, miller may have had other sources than rove, and don't forget novak named TWO officials, not just one. it seems silly to consider such as fleischer as THE leak (where would he have learned such top secret info?), though he may have been involved in dispensing the info, which of course ups the ante to conspiracy. just last night a buddy and i were wondering when was it exactly ari so suddenly left the wh? about that time, was it not?
there is an original leaker that is eluding everyone, and i suspect that this is the info miller knows and why fitz is pursuing her so doggedly. my further suspicion is this:
miller's contact with chalabi had champions, of course in the pentagon, but also in state, via none other than bolton. i've convinced myself - through various readings about her background here and elsewhere - that bolton shared this info with miller, who may have submitted the story to the times, who declined to print.
this may well be the reason the wh has been so resistent to sharing those documents related to bolton's inquiries at state and the cia.
and it may well be the real reason miller is willing to mildew in a jail till october; she may be a bit afraid of what bolton would do if she did burn him. his reputation, as they say, precedes him. and she likely knows first hand.
speculation, granted. but hey, it sure is flying these days, and the situation is an open invitation for it.
JUDITH MILLER IS IN JAIL BECAUSE OF JUDITH MILLER. SHE WAS IN CONTEMPT OF COURT AND SENTENCED TO 4 MONTHS IN THE CLINK. JOURNALISTS DON'T HAVE IMMUNITY FOR PROTECTING TRAITORS, NOR SHOULD THEY.
About the update to this entry--when I read that I was thinking, "what, you mean they haven't blamed Wilson yet?" Didn't think Fox or the G.O.P. spin machine would have missed an opportunity to deflect the blame to any of the possible candidates, even the outrageous ones.
Also, to the poster confused about what the caps lock key is for--Joe's blog here is for everyone, but try to say something intelligent if you're going to contribute here, would you?
Nice piece of writing. "Scooped out with a melon baller." I love it. Gotta get you on my blogroll.
Cheers,
Billmon
The important thing is the Bushist liars cannot fool Patrick Fitzgerald, his investigators, the judges, and the grand jury.
(See Robert Parry's analysis at ConsortiumNews...)
There's a question here we aren't asking--the most important one. How exactly did Rove find out that Wilson's wife was CIA, and played a part in his assignment to Niger?
That is, the story isn't about who leaked to whom. It's about who TOLD someone to investigate Wilson in the first place, thereby coming up with the info about Valerie Plame.
Imagine this scenario: Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Bolton are in the Oval Office, brainstorming on how to blunt the bad news that no WMD's are being found in Iraq. As per his modus operandi, Rove says, we go after our critics. Bolton is tasked with investigating Joe Wilson and others. He begins top secret inquiries. About Wilson, he discovers that Wilson's CIA wife was involved in his being sent on the Niger mission. Bolton brings the info to Rove, who says, I can use this!--and leaks it to his favored journalists.
Now Rove is fingered as the source of the leaks. Sure, he's a self-serving traitor. But what's worse for the administration, now THEY ARE ALL criminal co-conspirators.
Rove has been elevated to Deputy Chief of Staff, where he can claim some "executive privilege" if the heat gets turned up. Bolton is being promoted to UN Ambassador, a post that's a reward for keeping his mouth shut. Judith Miller, who KNOWS how the administration was involved, goes to prison.
This is about a lot more than a leak about Valerie Plame. It's about more than simple perjury. This story is about how the casual abuse of executive power suddenly blossomed unexpectedly into a CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY at the highest level of government.
Gosh, this is like deja vu! Does Bush have a taping system in the White House?
The only other person besides Rove that this WH would go to such lengths to protect is Cheney. Just my 2 cents.
By the way, Sean Hannity from faux news not only claimed that Joseph Wilson outed his own wife, but that she outed herself to him during a "make out session." I can almost smell their desperation on this one.
Kim in PA
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