Criminal or Just Plain Stupid? (Newsweek)

[UpInArms]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/977708.asp?cp1=1

Oct. 8 — No matter how voluminous the evidence to the contrary, the Bush White House likes to convey the impression of unflagging infallibility. But the prospect that a “senior administration official” goofed big time is gaining fast currency among those familiar with the events in the current Washington leak controversy, sources close to the case tell NEWSWEEK.

<snip>

Instead, it is another “senior administration official”—the one quoted in a Sept. 28 Washington Post article as saying that “before Novak’s column ran” two top White House officials “called at least six Washington journalists” and disclosed the identify and occupation of Wilson’s wife. “Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge,” that senior administration official told the Post’s Mike Allen and Dana Priest.

<snip>

But more than 10 days after the story exploded, an alternative theory is emerging among those who are directly involved in the leak case: that the “senior administration official” quoted in the Washington Post piece simply got it wrong. There were indeed White House phone calls to reporters about Wilson’s wife. But most, if not all, of these phone calls, were made after the Novak column appeared, some government officials now believe. They were placed as part of a blundering effort to persuade journalists to concentrate on Wilson’s presumed lack of credentials as a critic of pre-Iraq war intelligence rather than the substance of his critique.

...more...

seems like there are lots of phone logs with calls to journalists regarding this issue - hmmmmm.....

[roguevalley]

1. good grief

both are possible. but someone still called
Novak and that limits it even more. It had to
be Rove. of course, this explains why the
investigation is widening to include other
outfits in the government.

[Cha]

2. "hmmmmmmmmm"! is Right!

they are "unflaggingly infallibly" Stupid!

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Just another big time goof

No big deal. Everyone misspeaks now and again.
</sarcasm>

When is the media going to start getting down and dirty about this crime?????

[arcane1]

4. crime? What's the big deal?

so they outed a CIA agent working on WMD, ruining any connections she may have had and compromising our national security at a time when practically the whole world wants a piece of us...

it's not like Bush lost money in a 20-year-old land deal :eyes:


/hopefully obvious sarcasm

[MO_Dem]

5. That's what I'd like to know, too, Angel

How long is this bunch of numbskull lunkhead lying thieving crooks going to get away with the "Aw, shucks, we didn't know it was wrong or illegal, we's just good ole boys frum down Texas way havin' us a little fun. We wouldn't do nuthin' to hurt nobody, nosireeee, we wouldn't"

[tinnypriv]

6. That title just about sums up the entire Bush Misadminstration

[wildwww2]

20. "Criminal and Just Plain Stupid" would be more honest. But Corporate

media is so pro Bu$h Inc. that would never happen. It is scary.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[fishnfla]

7. Another version of the "2 wave" theory

*What if* the "senior admin. official" in the Sept. 28th leak was the same one who talked to Novak originally and was trying to muddy the waters by pointing to the "second wave" of after-the-fact leakers?

You know I'm all for freedom of the press, but I think the admin is gonna get a pass on this act of treason. At least one journalist knows the truth. If journalists are gonna cover up crimes as serious as sedition, why should they ever be trusted again?

[RobinA]

19. They Will Get Away

with it. They'll murk up the waters so much no one will be able to make head nor tail of it and people will lose interest.

[goforit]

8. Now if the 5 other reporters knew it was illeagal and didn't report it,

Why did they overlook the leagalities?......

I guess they are above the law.

And that's A-OK with all REPUGS!!!!

:argh:

[lovedems]

9. Paul Begala isn't helping the issue where Rove is concerned

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/cf.html


BEGALA: I don't believe that he did either. Let me be clear. I know Karl. He's a friend of mine from Texas. I don't believe it.

But I know that there hasn't been an investigation.

While he is pushing for an investigation (yeah) he is totally letting Rove off the hook? What's up with that? Trying to keep his job with CNN? I am disappointed.

Who would want to be friends with a creep like that anyway?

[Flubadubya]

11. Yeah, Paul has wussed on a lot of issues...

Sometimes I think Begala is what he likes to call Texans he doesn't like (including Bush)... "all hat and no cattle". He blusters about and sounds good on a lot of issues, but he will take a dive when the rubber really hits the road, for example, like the dive he took under the Crossfire desk when Cynthia McKinney told the truth about Bush.

I basiclly like Paul, but he sure disappoints me a lot of times.

[Bandit]

17. Rove is very smart and this was very dumb or very arrogant

I tend to agree with Begala. I think it was Cheney because he is extremely arrogant and thinks he can do anything he wishes without any repercussions.

[lovedems]

18. Let's face it, they are all a bunch of assholes

and anyone of them could be the slimeball behind this disgrace.

[diplomats]

10. But someone still told Novak

and I wonder if this whole alternative "theory" is nothing more than an effort to set us up for a whitewash. And it begs the question of WHY a senior admin. official revealed this whole mess to the Post in the first place, and who it was. Someone must be upset with what's going on in the Bush WH.

[grasswire]

12. keep in mind...

....that Isikoff has a history of telling flat-out fibs. He and Fineman both.

[wabeewoman]

13. Whitewash-exactly!!

That was just what I thought when I read it. They really didn't do it and if they did it they didn't know what they were doing. Pleeezze!

[lindashaw]

14. These six journalists could show their patriotism by doing an

expose of this White House savaging of Wilson. Don't they realize that it would enhance their reputations with the general public? They're always saying, "I need a Watergate." Well, here's a Watergate.

[TheWebHead]

15. whooaaa... Chris Matthews was Rove "fair game" source

hadn't heard that until this article. Hardball will be interesting tonight... maybe he can make up for his Repuke lovefest he had yesterday.

[OldCurmudgeon]

16. don't you SEE?

if Rove (& maybe others) in the WH were contacting reporters AFTER the Novak article, trying to use Novak's article for traction against Wilson, what does that mean?

It means that the WH KNEW about the leak back in July. So why were they dragging their feet on the investigation until September?

(we know why: it was only in late September that the press got word that the CIA wanted an investigation. It took the press questioning to get the WH to start the investigation at all. The delay in starting the investigation another damning piece of information)

Claims by the WH that "oh, we don't follow the papers for leaks" is exposed as a LIE. The fact that Rove & Co were using the leak for dirty politics makes it abundantly clear that they KNEW, they BENEFITTED from that leak, and they were PREPARED to use it.

Someone should be working on getting a Pulitzer for putting the timeline together and publishing it.

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