By defending the Wilsons, Left Blogostan simply helps Right Blogostan keep the focus on them, instead of Rove and his White House dirty tricks operation. It boggles the mind that more than a year after Fitzpatrick subpoened the records of the "White House Iraq Group," and nearly a week after the Newsweek story highlighted the obvious connection between Plame’s outing and the administration’s WMD disinformation campaign, virtually nothing about this shadowy committee has appeared in the mainstream press.
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July 14, 2005
WB: Sideshow
Comments
Unlike other parties to this thing, Wilson’s made himself available to the press, and the press can only cover what’s available. I mean, what else is available, up for discussion, interesting? Social Security? Jeffrey Miller? They can wait for another day. At the moment it’s Plame, and only Plame, thanks to Fitzgerald’s pressure on the two holdout reporters. And when Bloomberg.com finds itself coming to Wilson’s defense, I have to suppose that there’s nothing else out there at all.
This is what amazes me; apart from a couple of witnesses who’ve already testified to one or another thing, no one seems to have uttered a word about the material facts of Fitzgerald’s investigation. Is it ever thus with grand jury investigations? Doesn’t the press usually find a way to tap in to one or another juror, one or another investigator, one or another defense attorney? If any reporter has actually managed to do so, then his or her silence is all the more remarkable. It’s as if the merest discussion of the matter were somehow actionable. It’s as if editors all around were trying to stay out of jail.
Posted by: alabama | Jul 14 2005 19:19 utc | 1
Ah, the nickel drops: Rove’s friends won’t talk, for fear of incriminating the man (which suggests that they have nothing exculpatory to divulge); Rove’s opponents won’t talk, for fear of tainting Fitzgerald’s case; and the officers of the court won’t talk, for fear of being found out and sent off to prison….
Posted by: alabama | Jul 14 2005 19:38 utc | 2
Speaking as a reporter, I can say that the FBI is notoriously difficult to crack, as are grand juries. Special prosecutors, on the other hand, usually leak like sieves — and, in Ken Starr’s case, like a fucking elephant with a water bloat problem. (And that’s more a literal description than a metaphor)
Fitzgerald is definitely playing his cards much closer to his vest — although I noticed that back in February of last year, when the Rovians were all trooping in to testify to the grand jury, there was sudden a spate of leaks from “officials close to Fitzgerald” warning that some people were in danger of doing some serious jail time.
Think of it as the prosecutorial equivalent of taking a guy out back of the police station and wacking him a few times with a nightstick (just so he knows what could happen to him) before taking him into the interrogation room.
Posted by: Billmon | Jul 14 2005 19:47 utc | 3
I should have said ex-reporter. Like my high calorie diet, it’s all behind me now.
Posted by: Billmon | Jul 14 2005 19:49 utc | 4
Billmon:
You wrote:
“… virtually nothing about this shadowy committee has appeared in the mainstream press.”
What committee?
Posted by: paul | Jul 14 2005 20:01 utc | 5
Billmon, you still report. And you do it well.
Opinions are another thing.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 14 2005 20:03 utc | 6
Fitzgerald doesn’t give a damn about all this pissing & moaning. He’s an ump, paid to call balls and strikes. Kick dirt on his shoes, dump the Gatorade cooler, throw your cap in the air and argue the call til your blue in the face. He doesn’t care, you’re just a damn player.
Posted by: steve duncan | Jul 14 2005 20:20 utc | 8
You’re post with the mirror universe and the picture of Spock was just on CNN!
Posted by: aaron pacy | Jul 14 2005 20:27 utc | 9
The girl speaking mentioned about your postings on how the issue of Wilson is a smoke screen….YOU’VE MADE IT TO THE BIG TIME!!!!….lol
Posted by: aaron pacy | Jul 14 2005 20:28 utc | 10
A gentle reminder re some overlooked/forgotten details from back in Mar 2004 re the WHIG …
Subpoenas
The federal grand jury probing the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer’s name was published in a column in July, according to documents obtained by Newsday.
. . . Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President George W. Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
And the subpoenas asked for a transcript of a White House spokesman’s press briefing in Nigeria, a list of those attending a birthday reception for a former president, and, casting a much wider net than previously reported, records of White House contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news media outlets.
Posted by: Outraged | Jul 14 2005 20:38 utc | 11
You’re post with the mirror universe and the picture of Spock was just on CNN!
Congratulations. But just to be on the safe side, I’d go make sure all the female members of my family are accounted for ….
Posted by: bcf | Jul 14 2005 20:58 utc | 12
not only are you still a reporter, you’re my favorite reporter
Posted by: annie | Jul 14 2005 21:07 utc | 13
The girl speaking mentioned about your postings on how the issue of Wilson is a smoke screen….YOU’VE MADE IT TO THE BIG TIME!!!!….lol
Whoopdeedoo
Posted by: Billmon | Jul 14 2005 21:17 utc | 14
Something about the republican response reminds me of a 4th fireworks display gone awry. Too, too many fireworks going off at once. Could it be panic.
Posted by: ken melvin | Jul 14 2005 21:31 utc | 16
Something about the republican response reminds me of a 4th fireworks display gone awry. Too, too many fireworks going off at once. Could it be panic.
Well you know, they saw what THEY were able to do to Clinton over a blow job. So they understand what could happen if the mainstream press gets out of control. Not saying that will happen, but you can see why they’d be scared shitless that it might. So, fireworks galore!
Posted by: Billmon | Jul 14 2005 22:18 utc | 17
Yeah, I think you’re right about Wilson, though I have to stop myself from screaming at the radio or TV whenever I hear a RNC tool spouting the talking points. The correct response is always “Do you believe that there are circumstances where it is okay to expose a CIA agent, and does that include what Rove did?”
(A reference to the wingnuts’ howling for the head of Sandy Berger wouldn’t hurt, either.)
I’m new to this discussion. Please don’t jump on me with torches and pitchforks.
I don’t understand why “the Wilsons” are allowed to continue to be connected. It seems to me the one instance (Plame sending her husband to Niger – maybe – and he is a real jerk and doesn’t agree with the president) is being used to justify the other (Plame’s name linked to press).
Have we gotten to the point where your justification is considered, not just during sentencing, but in judging whether a crime has been committed? (I’m speaking of the court of public opinion, of course.) What if Rove had made it known around town that a hit-man who executed Ms. Plame could get a nice diplomatic post? Would we be having this same discussion? I am sure there are many criminal lawyers who would be glad to tell us all about their clients’ really good intentions. Why is this being allowed to continue?
When someone says “Joe Wilson” shouldn’t we interrupt and say “different discussion”?
Posted by: Anon | Jul 15 2005 15:39 utc | 19