Bob Novak Slimes Me (David Corn)

[struggle4progress]

BLOG | Posted 09/17/2006 @ 7:59pm

... I suspect his antipathy has something to do with his legal bills. He seems to blame me for the investigation that proceeded the leak he published--an inquiry that caused him to hire a lawyer and say nothing for two-and-a-half years ...

Being called an "ideologue" by Robert Novak is like being called a "cheat" by Jack Abramoff. Worse, Novak has his facts wrong. I was no adviser to Wilson and did not egg him. As Hubris makes clear--and let me remind readers once again, this book is about the selling of the war, not only the leak case--I called Wilson after the Novak column appeared and asked if he knew of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Wilson said that he didn't and that he wasn't at this point looking to draw additional attention to the Novak column. The next day, I called him again to see if anyone had yet written about this angle. Wilson said no one had; he still was not eager to publicize the leak. When I mentioned I intended to write about the leak and the possible legal (criminal, that is) ramifications, Wilson said, "It's up to you." There was no egging going on--from either side.

Spouting on C-SPAN, Novak ignored this part of the story--just as he ignored whole sections of the book that show that Rove (Novak's friend) and Libby were hell-bent on discrediting Wilson and that during the push-back campaign they waged against Wilson, they each disclosed classified information about his wife's CIA employment to reporters (before the leak appeared in Novak's column). This is not a conspiracy theory. It's a documented narrative that appears in Hubris--with new details. Our account expands on a well-established public record. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald filed court papers earlier this year noting that senior White House officials (meaning Rove and Libby) mounted a campaign to discredit or punish Joseph Wilson, who had criticized the administration's handling of the prewar intelligence on Iraq's WMDs. Is it Novak's position that Rove did not leak to Cooper? That Libby did not leak to Judith Miller of The New York Times? Novak ought to get out more--or, at least, read ..

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=122256