I haven’t been around today. How did the White House Press Corp do with Scottie? Sounds like they were pissed off, but got no info. Where does this do from here? What should Reid and Pelosi do?
Update [2005-7-11 16:46:34 by BooMan]: On CNN Inside Politics: Bay Buchanan was just tougher on Rove than Jack Valenti. Valenti: “I don’t see what the big deal is about Wilson.”
Update [2005-7-11 17:2:37 by susanhu]: MSNBC’s Connected (Ron Reagan/Monica Crowley) is covering the McClellan briefing, starting now.
At 2-1 against the comment were completely screwed. I’d be bankrupt.
They went after him like a vulchers at a scab.
“So will the president stand by his pledge to fire?”
“No comment.”
“This is ridiculous. You demonstrably told a falshehood 20 months ago (denying Rove’s involvement). You must comment.”
“No comment.”
All of them got together and kicked the crap out of him, as I understand it. All my knowledge is second-hand.
This morning Booman commented that he’d have to consider suicide if the press didn’t go after this.
I told him we’d miss him when he was gone.
Please pass a heaping helping of crow; I’m happy to dig in. With humble pie for dessert.
4 and 20 [White House Administration Officials] baked in a pie….
I was pretty confident the press would do this.
But I didn’t want to talk shit, because they have been weak lately, I thought it was possible they would let Scottie go.
I sat around trying to put myself in Scottie’s shoes, and I realized he couldn’t say anything. There is nothing to say.
Either Rove resigns, or they don’t talk about it.
Scottie had no choice, if they want Rove to stay.
Also Scotty himself is now on the line for things he has said so he isn’t about to compound it now…
Idea, what if he is in on the leak in the first place.
Gannon (I think if I recall correctly) said they(reporters) were at time ushered into another room, a small group (perhaps), and were briefed by a senior white house (person) who could never be indentified….who was that…..Rove??????I think it may have been in interview or one of his posts for Talon news…
does this go along with the super secret cover as asked with Cooper.
Now I don’t have the links for that, but I think other reporters have said it as well.
Watching Scottie shoot his credibility with the press, I kept having flashbacks to Watergate-era press conferences. Maybe today will be remembered as the day we started to put them on the run. One can hope, anyway.
That’s a 4 for using the correct term. (“Seppuku” as opposed to “hara-kiri”.)
Oh, and Booman would have been missed, of course.
My sons watch a lot of anime and are “into” Japanese culture, so I was previously informed by them on this very topic! LOL
For once the Press Corps was unrelenting. Full text of the briefing makes for an entertaining read, to say the least.
at least the mainstream, is a pack of tamed hyenas. Most of the time they’ll skulk around hoping the lions will leave some scraps. But give them a wounded antelope and they’ll turn into ravening killers made mad by the scent of raw meat. It’s looking like we’ve reached that point.
Exactly.
Entertaining indeed! Thanks for the link.
Oh, bloody hell… that’s WONDERFUL. Move over, Robin Williams, there’s a new standup comedian on the block and he’s a real pro.
Reid and Pelosi should hold a press conference demanding that Bush live up to his promise to get to the bottom of this matter.
Period.
And maybe wring their hands a little as they express the hope and expectation that no American president would engage in such serious betrayals of trust.
Louise Slaughter has posted on dkos a letter she sent to the president demanding just that.
Waxman has written Tom Davis again asking for hearings
and their is an ethics group demanding that Rove’s security clearance be lifted (which would make it impossible for him to be in his current position, or in most positions in the WH)
I’m going to take Rove at his word, and go with the assumption that he called around, told a bunch of journalists that Wilson got the Niger job because his wife works at the agency.
Suppose then Novak took that information, called up Judy Miller(or someone else) and asked, “hey, who is Joe Wilson married to?” Miller then looks in her dandy black book and says “Valerie Plame”.
Is Rove still legally culpable because her “identity” is legally desribed by “joe wilson’s wife”? Or is Miller(or whomever) culpable because they put a name (Plame) with “Joe Wilson’s wife”?
Doesn’t it appear that this case may be heading towards that very distinction?
But the key is that it shouldn’t matter. If it were a Democrat at the middle of this he would have already been tried, convicted and hung in the court of public opinion. Innocent or not. We all know Rove (and McClellon for that matter) is far from innocent in this matter, and we need to get that into the public opinion.
unfortunately, i can not comment becasue if i do i will expose the crooks and liars who run this administration. next question.
I am convinced Judith Miller is the key to this puzzle. She spoke to a “government official” on or about July 6th (the same date Wilson’s op-ed piece ran in the Times, and a week before Novak blew Plame’s cover). Fitzgerald knows who Miller spoke to, so it is not a matter of discovering her source. We also know that whoever Miller’s “source” was, they signed a blanket waver which Fitzgerald claim’s releases Miller to talk. Four White House officials signed a waver, so it is a fairly safe assumtion that Miller’s source is in the White House, and my guess is that it is Libby or Rove.
My guess is that this all began with Miller, and Rove picked up the ball and ran with it. Miller never filed a story herself, so it is a fair guess that her involvement was something other than a recipient of a leak. And frankly, it would have been nuts for Miller to write this story because she was already so identified as a propagandist for the Neocons in the White House.
But if Miller never talks, and Rove obfuscates, this goes nowhere.
It’s getting close to three hours since the brief briefing. No video or transcript up yet at the WH. Seems a bit slow to me. Usually, I find — not just the video — but the transcript up.
I’m sure they are experiencing “technical difficulties.” Probably a server issue dontcaknow.
Hey Andrew, did you know you spelled donchaknow wrong and that is improper grammer?<Big snark>just between you and me.
I noticed that after I posted but was hoping no one would notice. LOL
I am far from the grammer police. I was joshing you because of the little flame just a bit ago over at that other site. I was the first to post the inappropriateness of the violence and gutting comment and you agreed with very good points and then Femnazi charged you with writing without a grammer permit. Unbelievable. That is why I kidded you aboutthe spelling.
I understood completely. Thanks for sharing in the humor of the situation. That whole thing was just a wee bit silly.
is that Rove is going down one way or the other.
Similarly Scottie is compromised.
Part of the problem with the press is corporate ownership.
Part of the problem I think has been fear of Rove and his tactics of personal slander and slime.
The fact that the press went after Scottie with clear accusations of Rove’s guilt tell me that they have decided not to fear Rove anymore. This could only happen if they know he is going down. They did it as a group. If Rove is guilty and the incontrovertible proof is on its way then they need no longer fear him which then frees them to take revenge by ensuring he goes down in the court of public opinion as well.
I wonder about Scottie’s complicity as well given some of the direct questions aimed at him. His credibility was challenged. Bush was challenged as well to make good on his word. Bush was challenged to back Rove with a statement of confidence or declare his guilt by not declaring confidence. McClellan did not declare confidence in Rove on Bush’s behalf.
Keep the pressure on.
Absolutely. I have always felt that this admin had the press cowed for one reason or the other. I think there must be real weakness here or they wouldn’t say boo (sorry Booman!)
That’s the smell of blood in the water!
Day-yam! I really wish these questions were attributed. Who said that? I want to send them a thank you note. Hell, I think I want to have their baby.
Judging from past behavior, Scotty’s hoping that the time to talk about it will be just as soon as they can get away with saying, “It’s an old story that we’ve already commented on. There’s no need to revisit it.” They love going right from the It’s-Too-Early-Too-Discuss-That stage to the We’ve-Already-Discussed-That stage, blissfully skipping over that awkward bit that actually involves discussing.
I’d love to know who the reporters are, too. There have to be some political junkies here who can identify them from the video. Pretty please?
I believe ABC’s Terry Moran (of “last thoes” fame), and CBS’s John Roberts.
Crooks and Liars has video of the Rove components of the Scotty show here.
Keith Olbmermann lays into Rove in his blog. Should be an interesting night on the Countdown 🙂
Sorry Keith.
Olbmermann. Sheesh.
The WH has tossed him to the sharks…W’s cover is spelled out in this response by Scottie:
Emphasis mine.
Looks to me that the SPIN is Karl Lied to the President…Karl jumped the shark!
Peace
Nah, Bush can’t abandon Karl. Karl knows waaaaaaaaay too much.
But consider this scenario: assuming there’s an indictment,
Rove takes the fall, covering Bush, Cheney, et al from further involvement…even though it’s delusional to imagine that their hands are clean;
Fitzgerald charges Rove, Libby and whomever else he can wrap this around and pursues the case to trial ;
in the meantime everybodt’s lawyered-up, out on bail and life goes on essentially unchanged form an operational perspective.
Rove continues his manipulations behind the scenes, where he’s always been more comfortable, Bush and Cheney et al walk, it takes 2 to 3 years for the charges to come to trial…assuming they ever do…end of W’s second term = pardon’s for all…fat cat retirements and cushy positions on K St. or wherever. What’s to loose?
The concept of “Omerta” in this administration is richly rewarded.
Ah yes, loyalty to the “family” above all else.
I clicked on this diary with caution because if it was the same old shit I was going to start tearing my hair out. I hope that nobody thinks I’m an idiot but after reading all of this I have fricken tears in my eyes. I can’t believe the stress that I have been under witnessing this president and his henchmen doing their thing. I’m just about ready to cry thinking that just maybe, just maybe this one time a little justice will be done.
Tracy, I feel for you. It’s all enough to drive any feeling person fricken insane. Sometimes it makes me cry too.
because every time it SEEMS as though they are going down, they don’t. But a poster above in this thread (sorry, forgot who), made an interesting point – that the WH Press Corps would never have had the strength to attack Scotty this unrelentingly today, unless they were certain Rove will be toast.
Media Matters goes after him, BooMan (always thought he was a fat cat bozo — so odd CNN would have HIM as a spokesman for the Dems):
Valenti strikes again: Ostensibly representing Democrats on CNN, he asked “what’s the big deal?” about Plame outing — then criticized Hillary Clinton
Today, 4:21 PM
The “Strategy Session” segment on the July 11 edition of CNN’s Inside Politics featured former Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti — who was ostensibly representing the Democratic point of view — wondering what the “big deal” is about the Valerie Plame case. As Media Matters for America has previously noted, Valenti has not worked in partisan politics in nearly four decades; it showed here, as his comments were representative of neither a typical Democratic viewpoint nor of reality.
Asked how much trouble White House senior adviser Karl Rove is in for his involvement in the outing of covert CIA agent Plame, American Cause president Bay Buchanan ably — if optimistically — represented a Republican viewpoint, saying: “I still do not think he is the focus of an investigation; that’s what we’re told, I believe that. And I don’t think he broke any laws.”
In response, Valenti essentially agreed, dismissing in the process the significance of a leak that revealed the classified identity of a CIA officer. With Buchanan looking on approvingly — a smile on her face — Valenti explained:
VALENTI: As I have read in the papers, what the law is, that you have to deliberately know that this woman was a covert agent. If she wasn’t a covert agent, there’s no law broken on this. And I think the lawyers will have a field day here. I think this is a little setback for Mr. Rove for a few weeks, but it will pass away.
The fact is that all administrations leak. This is not something that — you know, “I’m shocked that something is going on upstairs.” Uh, it happens. My judgment is that there is no long-term damage here. Because I’m not even sure what’s the big deal about this [former ambassador Joseph C.] Wilson [IV], uh, and, and his wife, Valerie Plame thing? It’s not what I would call a huge issue facing the American public today.
Valenti’s reading of the situation was so favorable to Rove that host Candy Crowley was moved to respond, “Well, probably from your lips to Bay’s ears.”
As Valenti should know, there is simply no comparison between the run-of-the-mill “leaks” that “all administrations” engage in and the vindictive, possibly illegal leak — for partisan political purposes — of the name of a covert intelligence operative. The former happens every day; the latter is prohibited precisely because it puts lives at risk and endangers national security. If Valenti doesn’t understand what the “big deal” about that is, he is in a poor position to represent the Democratic viewpoint on CNN.
Asked about progressives who have suggested that Rove should lose his security clearance and/or resign, Valenti replied: “Well, that’s politics.” It was left to Buchanan to eventually concede that “it is a federal investigation, and so it is very serious, and if he [Rove] does become the focus of that, it’s extraordinarily serious.”
After devoting only three and a half minutes to Rove and Plame, the “Strategy Session” team spent more than four and a half minutes on a comparatively insignificant matter: a reference Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) recently made to President Bush and Alfred E. Neuman. During that discussion, Valenti gently criticized Clinton, and provided further evidence that he is a less-than-ideal choice to represent the Democratic viewpoint, as he repeatedly said he is “very reluctant” to criticize the president:
VALENTI: Having worked for a president in the White House myself, I’m very reluctant to go after a president because I know better than most the agony and the problems and the life and death decisions that they’re called up on to make, so I really stand back from something like that. I don’t feel good about it. … I’m reluctant to go after somebody like that in a comic personal way.
Later, Valenti seemed to repeat a frequent right-wing talking point, saying that Clinton “understands how to transform herself, which she is doing right now, and she is doing it, I think, in a very, very subtle and discursive way.”