Scooter and the GOP implosion
kala
3,361 Posts
i am suprised that none of you liberal backpacking rarer loving elise fur slaving batches @politcalsciencestrut.com have kept so bloody mum bout this.I like watching the machine eat itself[coverups/lying/purgery/murder/war/death/press munipulation and most importantly -someone is a traitor for BLOWING VALERIE PLUME'S NOC COVER.funnyBack to front page -ny times??January 30, 2007, 11:43 amA Look at the Libby TrialBy Kate PhillipsFrom witness to witness, the interplay between the Bush White House and the press has taken center stage at the trial of I. Lewis Libby.This week promises more on the nature of relationships between Bush administration officials like Mr. Libby and the press, with reporters like Judith Miller, former New York Times correspondent, and Tim Russert, of NBC???s ???Meet the Press?????? expected to testify.If anything, the last week has shown how tight-lipped and uptight White House officials were over claims that Joseph Wilson was sent on a trip to Niger by Vice President Dick Cheney, rather than as some Bush aides insisted, by his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, while she was a C.I.A. operative.At his trial on perjury charges, Mr. Libby???s defense team has contended that he???s been made the fall guy, as the White House protected Karl Rove and others from charges that they had leaked Ms. Wilson???s undercover identity. His lawyers have also argued that he can???t remember a lot of conversations because he was an extremely busy public servant.Mr. Fleischer, in his testimony yesterday, told the jury that Mr. Libby told him the identify of Mrs. Wilson three days before the date Mr. Libby has sworn he first learned who she was. He was the fifth prosecution witness to contradict Mr. Libby???s testimony to grand jurors.But beyond the question of Mr. Libby???s guilt or innocence, the trial is also opening a window on the extremely closed office of Mr. Cheney.The testimony has has revealed how actually clueless the so-called flaks ??? press aides like Cathie Martin and Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary ??? were when top aides clamped down on information. They say they simply weren???t told what was going on.On the witness stand yesterday, Mr. Fleischer emerged from his semi-retirement in the limelight with the same cheeky retorts he used on the White House press corps for years. Mr. Fleischer made it clear that Mr. Libby had not been a source of his at the White House. And he also explored the place he found himself in as this situation became murkier, and he asserted, when real information became less accessible. ???The worst place to stand as press secretary is where the ground is shifting,??? Mr. Fleischer told the jury. ???You can???t say yes, and you can???t say no.??? As the WashPost???s Dana Milbank described: Thus did Libby???s defense team learn what any reporter could have told them: The longer you question Fleischer, the less knowledge you take away from the experience. And Fleischer, protecting his own role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, was determined not to give even a kernel of fact to Libby???s defense.Or as our Scott Shane put it, after Mr. Fleischer testified that he told NBC???s David Gregory and John Dickerson, then with Time magazine and now with Slate, that he???d learned Mr. Wilson???s wife might???ve engineered that infamous trip: ???They didn???t take out their notebooks,??? he said. ???They didn???t ask any follow-up questions. It was a great big ???so what.??? ??? This, Mr. Fleischer acknowledged, was not unusual. ???Like a lot of things I said to the press, it seemed to have no impact,??? he said, provoking loud guffaws from the score of reporters in the courtroom ??? including Mr. Dickerson.In his online report last night, Mr. Dickerson says he doesn???t remember Mr. Fleischer being so specific. In fact, he contradicts Mr. Fleischer???s testimony, making him a possible witness, by recalling that the White House spokesman only told him and Mr. Gregory to check out who sent Mr. Wilson, not that Ms. Wilson, at the C.I.A., had.You???ve got to read Mr. Dickerson???s account for his head-scratching recollections of being scooped by his colleague, Matt Cooper (another expected witness at the trial), when this all started to unfold. And this kicker, which says a bit about Mr. Fleischer: Only moments before Ari???s surprise disclosure, I had been trying to figure out what my lede would be for today. I enjoyed seeing Ari have to answer questions under oath, which he never had to do in the White House briefing room. As a reporter, I???d always tried to put him in the witness box, and he always climbed out. Now he may have put me in there.Stay tuned.
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