Author: Dean Pajevic

Oh, the deflation today after some of the overnight buzz — that the WSJ and Bloomberg were going to nail Dick Cheney — fell flat. (‘course, there are always tonight’s editions.)

Now there’s all this buzz about the little-known White House Iraq Group whose documents — as I quoted yesterday from a 2004 Newsday article — were subpoenaed clear back in 2004 by Patrick Fitzgerald (Grand Jury List of Witnesses & Documents [from 2004], Oct. 11, 2005).

“The news is flying fast and furious this evening,” wrote a breathless Jane Hamsher last night at FireDogLake. “Raw Story has an excerpt from tomorrow’s WSJ saying that the investigation may have broadened to include the whole of the White House Iraq Group.”

But that “excerpt” turned out to be this ho-hummer: “Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group.” (WSJ, Oct. 12, 2005)

In the spirit of entertaining speculation, let’s look at some snapshots of the primary members of the nearly secret WHIG that sold the American people, the media, and the Congress on the Iraq war. And how. By the way, if you’re hip, or you read Catnip’s fine piece last night, you now know that WHIG stands for White House Iraq Group.

First — and this is an exclusive! — here’s WHIG’s mascot:

WHIG FOUNDER — and presidential cheeseburger fetcher¹ — is President Bush’s Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Quotable Card, on selling the war in Iraq: “From a marketing point of view you don’t introduce new products in August.”

Dishing: Writes Billmon, “If Howard Fineman is right, and Andrew Card really is making a move to topple Karl Rove, then this country could be in a heap of trouble. … “I’m not a very smart person,” Card says. “I have to work really hard at remembering things.” … “When I interviewed him, I could tell fairly quickly that [he] definitely wasn’t the sharpest chisel in the White House toolbox.” However, according to Sourcewatch, he’s known as a consensus builder.

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¹From “Ron Suskind’s as-told-to account of former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s stormy tenure, The Price of Loyalty, reports Billmon:

“Go get me Andy Card,” Bush said to one of the Secret Service agents. Card, the designee as chief of staff, entered from an adjoining room . . . Bush looked impatiently at Card, hard-eyed. “You’re the chief of staff. You think you’re up to getting us some cheeseburgers?”

Card nodded. No one laughed. He all but raced out of the room.

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Below the fold are profiles of the other ruthless, relentless WHIGs who sold the war: Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James R. Wilkinson, Nicholas E. Calio, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley and I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby …

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Yahoo News/Reuters: “Prosecutor asks NYT reporter to testify again.”

… The decision by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald comes just days after Miller found notes from a previously undisclosed conversation — on June 23, 2003 — with Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

“She is to return to the grand jury Wednesday to supplement her earlier testimony,” New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said in a memo on Tuesday to New York Times staff, a copy of which was forwarded to Reuters.

CNN is also reporting that Judith Miller will testify tomorrow (thanks, Catnip).

Update [2005-10-11 20:41:20 by susanhu]: “Reporter Miller, Prosecutor Have Tangled Before” (AUDIO) , via MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann:

… The legal fight over the CIA leak case isn’t the only time Miller and Fitzgerald have been at odds.

In fall 2001, Miller and Times Washington correspondent Philip Shenon were reporting on Islamic charities suspected of funnelling money to al Qaeda.

At that time, Fitzgerald was leading the prosecution as the newly named U.S. attorney in Chicago. He and the Justice Department argued that Miller’s calls while working the story tipped off a foundation to an impending raid — a charge the Times rejects.

… MORE BELOW THE FOLD

(Can this story be used to try to discredit Fitzgerald in going after Miller so hard? Or does it explain that Fitzgerald is initmately aware of how Miller bobs and weaves, deceiving and mucking about with sensitive information.)

Also: MSNBC’s Hardball, which reairs at 8pm PT, is a must-see today for Plamegate-ophiles. (However, MSNBC has not yet broken the story about Miller testifying tomorrow.) Among the topics discussed:

• “Libby Did Not Tell Grand Jury About Key Conversation,” by the indefatigable and ahead-of-the-pack Murray Waas. Published today in the National Journal.
  

  
  

  In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative’s name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of his sworn testimony.

  
  

• Judy Miller might end up being indicted. (Many of us have thought that Judith Miller may have been a source.)

If Miller is indicted, I wonder when the NYT will distance itself from her, and stop its non-reporting reporting of the CIA Leak case.

And don’t miss:

• Catnip’s “Tell Us Who Fabricated the Iraq Evidence”
• BooMan’s “Ripples in the Pond”
• Larry Johnson’s “Mambo Italiano and Plame Gate”
  
• JPol’s “Is Rove the Scapegoat?”
  
• JPol’s “Saint Judith Miller”
  
• and much more (use the search, bottom right)

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Our buddy at Crooks & Liars asks this question: “Why does his jaw grind so much?” And CL has a video example of Bush’s jaw-grinding.

It’s probably TMJ or the stress of the intellectual rigors of the presidency. And, if we had to talk to as many people a day as he does, our jaws would get tight too! Right? This is an OPEN THREAD, but do share why YOU think Bush’s jaw grinds so much.

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As we ruminate over Larry Johnson’s analysis- and fact-rich post here last night (“Mambo Italiano and Plame Gate“) … as we read USA Today‘s piece today on Fitz (“Investigator of CIA leak seen as relentless,” via Salon‘s Daou Report) … and as we wish we were quiet little flies on the walls of Fitz’s office (shhh, stop the buzzin’, Catnip!) as he talks to Judith Miller today* — here’s a list of journalists called before the CIA Leak grand jury, as of 2004, from Newsday (article not available any longer) via JustOneMinute blog:

• Robert Novak, “Crossfire,” “Capital Gang” and the Chicago Sun-Times
  
  
• Knut Royce and Timothy M. Phelps, Newsday
  
  
• Walter Pincus, Richard Leiby, Mike Allen, Dana Priest and Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post
  
  
• Matthew Cooper, John Dickerson, Massimo Calabresi, Michael Duffy and James Carney, Time magazine
  
  
• Evan Thomas, Newsweek
  
  
• Andrea Mitchell, “Meet the Press,” NBC
  
  
• Chris Matthews, “Hardball,” MSNBC
  
  
• Tim Russert, Campbell Brown, NBC
  
  
• Nicholas D. Kristof, David E. Sanger and Judith Miller, The New York Times
  
  
• Greg Hitt and Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal
  
  
• John Solomon, The Associated Press
  
  
• Jeff Gannon, Talon News

Also tantalizing is a partial list of documents subpoenaed:

• “[R]ecords of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer’s name was published in a column in July
  
  

• “[R]ecords 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.”
  
  
• “[A] transcript of a White House spokesman’s press briefing in Nigeria”
  
  
• “[A] list of those attending a birthday reception for a former president”
  
  
• “[R]ecords of White House contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news media outlets”
  
  
  
• “[A] complete transcript of a July 12 press “gaggle,” or informal briefing, by then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer while at the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria. That transcript is missing from the White House Web site containing transcripts of other press briefings. In a transcript the White House released at the time to Federal News Service, Fleischer discusses Wilson and his CIA report.”

More at the JustOneMinute blog.

See also: ThinkProgress’s list of the 21 administration officials involved in the CIA leak case.

………………………………………………

*The Last Hurrah‘s emptywheel is speculating about today’s twosome of Judy and Fitzie: “The Theory of the Two Notebooks.” See below:

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Seen the original The Shining? See the trailer for the new “Shining.”

Or, watch bunnies do The Exorcist …

This is an OPEN THREAD!

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