politicalpartypoop.com

 Found on the blog Protein Wisdom

Via Terry Hastings comes this, from Opinion Journal:

Wilson Goes Quiet

“Former ambassador [tagJoseph[/tag] Wilson asked a federal judge Wednesday not to force him to testify in the CIA leak case and accused former White House aide I. [tag]Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby[/tag] of trying to harass him on the witness stand,” the Associated Press reports from Washington:

“Mr. Libby should not be permitted to compel Mr. Wilson’s testimony at trial either for the purpose of harassing Mr. Wilson or to gain an advantage in the civil case,” Wilson’s attorneys wrote

.Hmm, for a guy who burst onto the scene three years ago as the most garrulous figure since Ted Turner, and who then wrote a book called “The Politics of Truth,” Wilson is awfully averse to testifying under oath.

Here is some of the ballad:

Oh, Yellowcake Joe, Yellowcake Joe, went to Niger don’t you know?
Yellowcake Joe, Yellowcake Joe went there on a mission.

There once was a great ambassador by the name of Yellowcake Joe,
A kind of travelling minstrel in a one-man mistrel show.
His wife was a secret agent who was secretive and sly,
The vice-pres wants someone to go, my husband is the guy.

He knows the folks in Niger land who know the story well,
If Saddam’s sought uranium then surely Joe they’ll tell.
He knows the local customs and he drinks a lot of tea,
So tell Dick Cheney that he’ll go, I ask on bended knee.

Oh, Yellowcake Joe, Yellowcake Joe, went to Niger, don’t you know?
Yellowcake Joe, Yellowcake Joe, did a little fishin’.

The minstrel went to Niger land and sat in the cafe,
And interviewed the folks at hand and chatted all the day.
He came back to the USA and gave us his report,
That Saddam probably had conspired the substance to import.

Read the rest here, good stuff

Ten days after Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and the Nation’s David Corn revealed — contrary to Corn’s previous speculation — that the original leaker in the Valerie Plame controversy was former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and not Karl Rove or another of former Ambassador Joe Wilson’s bogeymen, the New York Times finally got around to editorializing on the matter. And what an editorial it was.

Keep in mind that the story broke on Saturday, Aug. 27, The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune editorialized on the matter on Sept. 1, five days later, the Los Angeles Times ran its editorial on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the New York Times finally weighed in. Were the Times’ editorial writers doing extensive research and crafting a masterful editorial? Nope.

In its editorial titled “Time for Answers,” after identifying Valerie Plame as a “covert C.I.A. agent” the Times writes: “The revelation tells us something important. But, unfortunately, it is not the answer to the central question in the investigation — whether there was an organized attempt by the White House to use Mrs. Wilson to discredit or punish her husband, Joseph Wilson. A former diplomat, Mr. Wilson debunked the claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger to make nuclear weapons.”

Yes, it’s time for answers — from the Times. How does it know for certain that Valerie Plame was both “covert” and an “agent”? The source of those claims is her husband, and other major media organizations have withheld judgment. The Washington Post calls Plame merely a “former CIA employee.” The Los Angeles Times uses scare quotes when describing the “outing” of Plame. But the Times swallows the Wilson line whole.

The Times also, incredibly, persists in asserting that “Mr. Wilson debunked the claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger to make nuclear weapons.” Do the Times editorial writers read anything other than their own editorial page? READ THE REST OF THIS STORY FROM THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR

THEN check this out: The liberal bloggers are determined to get “someone” ANYONE in the Bush administration…and make themselves “rich” in the process…

From Firedoglake  

If it  hadn’t been for the groundbreaking work of the blogosphere, and Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel of Kos and The Next Hurrah fame) in particular, the CIA Leak Investigation probably would have turned into another Whitewater — an incomprehensible mess of spin put forward by the Administration and published on the front page of the Washington Post like it actually made sense. Thanks to the tireless work of those who read carefully and publicly held journalists accountable for their work, the abililty of the Administration to do  that was sorely hampered. 

Now the table is being set for a Libby pardon, helpfully abetted by the New York Times, the Washington Post and Bill Kristol among others. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who has worked so tirelessly and efficiently on this case, is being smeared by those who either don’t understand what has happened to date or are willfully ignorant of history.

It is for this reason that we are going to be publishing our first book through FDL Books, in order to have Marcy’s work seen by a larger audience.  We hope to publish it in much the same fashion as Glenn Greenwald’s How Would a Patriot Act, in conjunction with Jennifer Nix who did such a great job on that effort. Glenn’s book which was a true internet phenomenon, and we hope we can have a similar impact by publishing this book in conjunction with the Libby trial in February of next year. 

If George Bush wants to pardon Scooter Libby, it is important that he know that there will be a price to be paid for doing so, and that price increases as the truth spreads.  We need 650 readers to give $100 each in order to help us to make that happen. That’s less than 1% of the average readership of this blog on any given weekday.  This is an important story both for the blogosphere and the country to get right, and we need your help to do that.

From Jane “Blackface” Hamsher 

“We’re really looking forward to publishing Marcy’s book and pushing back against the “Libby did nothing wrong, it was all Armitage” narrative. Years’ worth of history has to be forgotten in order to pull that wool over the country’s eyes. “

I remember at the convention while attending the CIA leak portion of Yearly Kos how the people gave that idiot bastard Joe Wilson at huge standing ovation and treated this guy like he was some hero, people gushing over him, I’m talking about serious hero worship for a man who is a bimbo, and I thought to myself the liberal left in this country is really fucked up. This crazy blog group just as white as they can be, just as confused as they can be, and just as angry as they can be.
Anyone with common sense knew this man was a fraud and an opportunist pimping his wife around like a cheap Vegas escort.
I’m not there YET, but I think the kook left Blogsphere will be the ultimate downfall of the Democratic Party.
Many of these bloggers are Cindy Sheehan with editorial skills. If prominent Democratic leaders start relying on the support of these crazy people they are toast.  

BUT, I love liberals they are if nothing else entertaining.

This is from Rush on yesterdays (Wednesdays) show. His take on why the liberal blogs, the liberal media, the liberal pundits are all silent on the revelation that Armitage is the leaker?  

CALLER: I am the best I can be, at two things. I called about the Valerie Flameout case. I have about two six-hour tapes of Wilson and Rove impeachment, special prosecutor and Libby, and I got five and one half minutes Monday on the truth about the CIA leak case, not one minute of Matthews eating crow or anything else. I’m just wondering, do you think Isikoff could have rolled that story out Monday, knowing it was going to get rolled under by Katrina this week?

RUSH: No, no. They’re trying to sell books. Liberals are liberals first, they like money as much as anybody else.

CALLER: Well, they rolled it out on a terrible week and I haven’t even seen Corn out at all.

RUSH: Well, he’s been out there. You have to read certain things. The problem is not Katrina. The problem is that this sweeps away the foundation of everybody’s theory. You know, there’s a blog site out there called the Huffington Post, and the Huffington Post — some people call it the “Puffington Post;” I don’t pay enough attention to it to even give it a trick name, but it has practically lived on posts from wackos who were convinced that Rove was going to be indicted and that Rove and Cheney and Scooter Libby and maybe even Bush were going to be indicted, Bush impeached and so forth. Now it’s Armitage and the whole thing has done a flameout.

The reason you’re not hearing about it is because it didn’t go where all these leftists had pinned their hopes. It’s just the latest in a long line of lies that they have told themselves. Matthews hasn’t done anything on it because, A, Katrina is an opportunity to beat up Bush, but B, there’s nothing here to do. Here are the questions for you about this. The questions about this are: Where are the media dogging Richard Armitage? Turn this around. I mean, look at how long they hung around Rove’s house. They were dogging Rove. They were following Rove all over the place. Media hordes followed around Scooter Libby whenever he left the White House.  
 
Now we know it’s Armitage. Have you seen one reporter sidle up to Armitage and say, “Why didn’t you say anything sooner sir?” Poke a microphone in his face, “Have you seen anybody stake out Colin Powell?” “Secretary Powell, you knew this much sooner than we knew you knew it, you knew this much sooner than anybody else knew it. Why did you remain silent?” Have you seen any of that? You haven’t, and you won’t. You won’t see any of that because this is a disappointment. The air has been let out of the tire here, so to speak, but there’s no anger at Armitage because, you see, the thing worked! As far as Matthews and the boys are concerned, it worked.

I cited the polling data that’s been going on, ABC News, Washington Post, Pew Center for people in the press, 68 to 72% of the American people think that Bush did something unethical, that they were attacking Joe Wilson’s wife and Joe Wilson himself and it was all to get even with them because they had tried to sabotage or criticize Bush’s war policy, so as far as the Matthewses of the world are concerned, it worked. Bush’s poll numbers were driven down, is considered unethical. Bush, Cheney, and Rove are considered to be conspirators and mean-spirited and they try to destroy their political enemies. The Bush administration considered to be at the very at least unethical. So as far as they’re concerned, it worked.

READ THE REST FROM RUSH

 Sources close to Richard Armitage have confirmed for the NYTimes that he was, indeed, the source not only for Bob Novak, but also for Bob Woodward and another journalist.

Remember when all of the liberal nut blogs were all over this story bitching and complaining that everyone in the Bush Administration should have been fired impeached, thrown in jail for outing poor Valerie and screwing over Mr. Wilson.
It’s funny how I have scanned the liberal blogsphere and it is awfully quiet. I can’t find any blog that was open enough or bold to post the story. Of course, why look like an ass now, we have work to do reminding everybody about Bush’s failure in NOLA!

I of course went back to the blog that was considered by most to be the top dog in covering this whole mess, Firedoglake.
No editorial needed check out for yourself.   

 

By Kenneth R. Timmerman
FrontPageMagazine.com 

Finally some straight talk on the Valerie Plame case, thanks to Robert Novak, the conservative columnist who first revealed the identity of the not-so-covert CIA officer three years ago.
Novak’s July 14, 2003, column on the much-disputed trip to Niger by Plame’s husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, triggered an FBI investigation, a federal grand jury, and eventually the appointment of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who indicted top White House aid Scooter Libby for perjury along the way.
At issue was whether Saddam Hussein ever sent a buying team to Niger looking for uranium yellowcake in the 1999-2000 period. After tea and crumpets with former friends in the Nigerian government, Wilson concluded that it never happened. At least, that’s what he says today.
(The definitive Senate Select Intelligence Committee report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq, released in November 2004, asserts unequivocally that Wilson lied in public about the conclusions he sent to the CIA about his Niger trip).
Despite all the sturm und drang over the past three years, Novak kept silent about who said what regarding Wilson’s trip. The Left has imputed all kinds of scurrilous motives to Novak’s silence. (more) They have accused him of cutting a special deal with the special prosecutor. They have accused him of fingering Libby and Rove. They have accused him of total disregard of the First Amendment, preferring to violate the “sanctity” of anonymous sources in favor of going to jail.
They have compared unfavorably to former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who went to jail instead of revealing her sources in the same case.
But when the Left realized that Judy Miller had been close to Scooter Libby and actually reported on the facts of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs, rather than the creampuff version being put out by the anti-Bush crowd at the CIA, they dropped her instantly. She was fired by the NY Times almost the minute she was released from jail.
Fitzgerald finally has closed the leak case in so far as Novak is concerned. “That frees me to reveal my role in the federal inquiry that, at the request of Fitzgerald, I have kept secret,” Novak wrote yesterday in an account he published in Human Events.                                                                                                                   “Joe Wilson’s wife’s role in instituting her husband’s mission was revealed to me in the middle of a long interview with an official who I have previously said was not a political gunslinger,” Novak revealed. “After the federal investigation was announced, he told me through a third party that the disclosure was inadvertent on his part.”
The official who was Novak’s primary source did not even know the name of Wilson’s wife. But it wasn’t a very close-held secret. “I learned Valerie Plame’s name from Joe Wilson’s entry in ‘Who’s Who in America,’” Novak wrote.
I have asked a number of former CIA clandestine operators about Valerie Plame.
One former senior clandestine officer scoffed at the claim that Valerie Plame had ever been truly covert. “How can you be [covert] when you are married to an ex-U.S. ambassador and work for the State Department overseas?” Somebody looking at her from a hostile power (say, Iran) would have to have a brain the size of a pea to miss her connection to the U.S. government, he added.
And yet, former CIA officers who vigorously oppose this administration have signed public letters and gone on network television to protest the exposure of her identity as the greatest national security breach of the century.
Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer who became a deputy director of the State Department’s counter-terrorism bureau, has launched an internet witchhunt against Karl Rove for allegedly “outing” his former Camp Perry classmate, Valerie Plame. (Gee, Larry: Guess everybody must have known about Val’s Camp Perry date with you, so it’s okay to talk about that, right?)
Novak’s column takes the wind out of their sails. Not only was Karl Rove not Novak’s primary source, but Valerie Plame’s role at CIA was so well-known that a CIA spokesman, Bill Harlowe, was able to confirm to Novak that Plame had suggested Wilson for the Niger trip.
Like Novak and hundreds of others of reporters, I have had dealings with Harlowe over the years. Even if you had nailed down the identity of a covert CIA operator who had worked for the agency 20 years earlier, Harlowe would never confirm that person’s existence. The standard line was to neither confirm nor deny.
But if you asked if so-and-so who was posted overseas to a U.S. embassy, and was now working as an analyst, could give you a background briefing on their subject of expertise, he would at least get back to you with a yes or a no.
And that is exactly what he provided to Novak. The CIA public affairs office was his third source.
Larry Johnson and others had kvetched that Novak blew Valerie Plame’s cover at her “top secret” CIA proprietary, Brewster Jennings, in Boston.They allege that Plame was working undercover as an energy industry analyst to penetrate Iranian nuclear procurement networks.
But guess what? It wasn’t Bob Novak who revealed that Valerie Plame may have been working undercover (with an alleged tie to the alleged Brewster Jennings in Boston, which now hosts an Internet game similar to “Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego”?)
It was left-wing columnist David Corn, writing in The Nation, just two days after Novak’s first column.
It turns out that Corn is a close friend of the Wilson/Plame couple, and knew all about their various foreign outings. Unlike Robert Novak, he didn’t need to consult “Who’s Who in America” to learn Valerie Plame’s name.
If any security breach occurred with the disclosure of Valerie Plame’s name, look toward Joe Wilson, who posted his wife’s name to “Who’s Who,” and to their circle of political and professional friends.
My hunch: it was all part of a carefully orchestrated public relations scheme, that netted lying Joe Wilson prime time television appearances, a best-selling book, and a $2.5 million contract for the memoirs of Madame.