Bob Woodward scuttles Patrick Fitzgerald
Posted by Moonage on 17 Nov 2005 | Tagged as: Opinions
The revelation left the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, grappling with an unexpected new twist - one that he had not uncovered in an exhaustive inquiry - and gave lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff and the only official charged with a crime, fresh evidence to support his defense.
It kind of amazes me that after spending millions of dollars on an investigation spanning over two years that Patrick Fitzgerald could only come up with indicting Scooter Libby, only to have it apparently shot down in flames within a couple of weeks. Kind of makes me wonder what that goal of Fitzgerald’s investigation is at this point. I mean, how many reporters have to know who someone is before it is considered common knowledge? How clandestine ( Plame was not covert ) could Plame have been if at least FIVE reporters knew who she was? None of them seemed to have considered her covert ( because she was clandestine ).
This saga of outing a non-covert CIA operative just keeps getting messier and messier because so many people apparently discussed this non-covert CIA operative that Fitzgerald can’t get anything to stick because as soon as he tries, someone else fesses up that they discussed her as well.
Regardless of what Fitzgerald is trying to prove, bottom line is Plame must not have been very good at not being covert. Actually, I don’t think she cared too much about not being too careful about not being covert. Otherwise, I don’t think she would have allowed her husband to make a public spectacle of both of them by publishing his comments publicly instead of covertly, as he was supposed to. If he had done what he was supposed to, and stayed covert, then no one would be worrying too much right now about his non covert wife being outed publicly now would we?
Give it up Fitzgerald, you’re definitely no Ken Starr.
9 Comments »
on 17 Nov 2005 at 12:29 pm 1.MnMnM said …
Grand Jury testimony of longtime Washington Post editor Bob Woodward, leaked by Rove-ing reporter (humor).
It is posted at: Bob Woodward Tells Grand Jury Who Leaked First
Bobbing and weaving, a tangled web we do.
Please keep my identity a secret. Double super Secret.
Middle-aged, Middle-of-the-road, Mid-Westerner
on 17 Nov 2005 at 12:50 pm 2.Moonage
said …
That is absolutely a RIOT! Excellent post Double super Secret Middle-aged, Middle-of-the-road, Mid-Westerner!
on 17 Nov 2005 at 10:55 pm 3.Bryan Kerwick
said …
Somewhere in DC or Boston, Ted Kennedy’s bourbon soaked brain is about to explode. Hopefully he’ll be standing next to Kerry and Pelosi when it happens.
As for the rest of America, we now understand how the Liberals in the Democratic Party win arguments. They simply get their political buddies to trump up charges against whom ever they wish to put on the sidelines so they can fight the good fight against the second string players hoping against hope they can win a few. Bad news guys, it isn’t working. Libby will be exonerated and since he no longer is employed at the White House, has all the ammunition and time to run you fine folks thru the wringer. By the way, Tom DeLay will get his day in court in time to resume his post as Majority Leader after he exposes your political witch hunt for what it is. If anyone knows how to play dirty politics, DeLay is certainly the Grand Master Champion. Good luck when its payback time. You know what a bitch that can be.
on 18 Nov 2005 at 5:03 pm 4.StormWarning
said …
Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over til it’s over.”
Fitzgerald is calling for a new Grand Jury in this case.
“More at 11.”
on 18 Nov 2005 at 6:48 pm 5.Bryan Kerwick
said …
Einstein Fitzgerald now has to do some fancy dancing and get an indictment on someone, anyone that has even a snowballs chance in hell of sticking as clearly the Libby case has gone down in flames.
It is clearly evident that at least one reporter has lied about who said what and when.
The deeper fitzgerald digs in this mess, the harder it becomes for him to climb out of the hole he has created.
I suspect Libby’a legal team will ask for a dismissal on the grounds the grand jury evidence presented by the prosecution was false and misleading, proven clearly by woodwards testimony. I also suspect that motion will be granted, hence another grand jury.
Fitzgerald has to nail someone and the more we hear about this the probability is that the victim he gets will be a journalist.
The moral of the story is not to send a boy to do a mans job.
To be continued….
on 19 Nov 2005 at 1:13 pm 6.StormWarning
said …
Regardless of the outcome, remember that Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed by, and later praised by, President Bush.
“We’ve only just begin…”
http://www.geocities.com/chatykyla/midi/weveonlyjust.mid
on 19 Nov 2005 at 11:28 pm 7.Moonage
said …
The problem as I see it is that we’ve not “only just begun”, this has been going on for two years. It’s not a terribly complex issue either. The intent of my post was that given two years, and millions of dollars and manpower spent, all we’ve got is an indictment of Scooter Libby that will most likely not go anywhere. And, to top it off, his “conclusion” is obviously in error, as Woodward predates Libby’s “outing”. When this all began, I made the comment on The Fool that it would be impossible to pin one person down, as so many people knew about her. This latest headline just re-affirms what I said then.
on 20 Nov 2005 at 6:08 pm 8.StormWarning
said …
I’ve always maintained that:
* no one would go to jail for violation of the IIPA (not even going to debate what you and I disagree about, the Plame was a NOC at the time of the Novak article)
* someone in the WH was a likely suspect (if you go back and look, I’ve suspected Hadley for a long time)
I don’t think this is anywhere near over.
on 20 Nov 2005 at 9:25 pm 9.Moonage
said …
* no one would go to jail for violation of the IIPA (not even going to debate what you and I disagree about, the Plame was a NOC at the time of the Novak article)
According to the committee report I read, she worked for a clandestine operation. It never says she was herself covert. Since the operation itself has never been revealed, I can’t see how any law has been violated. If Fitzgeral could pin down Libby as obstructing justice by stating he didn’t recall something, then what he couldn’t recall should have been something tangible. In other words, he should have had evidence that a law had been violated in order for justice to be served that Libby had obstructed. That part is still missing. The problem I see this thing getting into is * someone in the WH was a likely suspect (if you go back and look, I’ve suspected Hadley for a long time), EVERYONE in the WH seems to be a likely suspect. This is not a matter of who was talking about Plame, it’s a matter of who mentioned Plame first. As such, I don’t think this is anywhere near over., I don’t think it’s resolvable.
The bottom line IMO is a covert person should not put their position in jeapordy by doing the things the Wilsons did. Period. If Plame had not pushed her husband for that trip, and Wilson had not taken his official duties public, this would never have been an issue. It would have been buried secretly and Valerie Plame would be as “covert” today as the bogus report her husband filed. As such, they chose to make themselves public figures. People had a justifiable reason to ask questions. Just because people in the WH asked the same questions does not mean those question did not have a right to be asked.
The ethics all the way around this situation are questionable. It is not fair at all to put all the blame on the White House. IMO, Valerie Plame abused her position getting her husband on that trip. Joe Wilson abused his position going public with what should have been CIA information. Just because Hadley “might” have abused his position does not make his actions any worse than theirs. If you want Hadley charged, I want Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson charged with exactly the same charges.