I just realized Ari Fleischer's last day was the day Plame was exposed...

[politicaholic]

in an article by Bob "fifth amendment" Novak.

Ari did seem to resign rather abruptly.

Could it be that he knew? Could it be that this was not a casual mention, but a planned vindictive act that Ari Fleischer knew would come back to bite anyone involved?

I'm not throwing out conspiracy theories here. I'm just wondering if there's a connection and if Ari has been questioned.

[tmorelli415]

1. Interesting

but he almost certainly gave his resignation weeks or months ahead of time.

[hang a left]

8. Yes he did.

If I remember it was a couple of months. And wasn't the reason given was he was getting married?

[Totally Committed]

2. So... do you think he was

getting out while the getting was good? I wouldn't doubt it one bit. This guy is scum.

He was getting out before the shit hit the fan.

TC

[napi21]

3. I think Ari knew much more than McClelland does.

I don't know why, but it just seemed that Ari was kept in to loop more. Maybe ShrubCo trusted him more, I don't know. McClelland appears to be given a few stock responses, no matter what's asked, and I don't think they tell him any important stuff at all.

[Rockholm]

21. McClellan. No "d"

[Jade Fox]

26. Interesting observation....

McClellan does seem amazingly clueless.

I always figured the reason Fleischer quit was because he was smart
enough to know the Bush house of cards would eventually fall, and
take a lot of people down with it.

[htuttle]

4. Yes, Ari was also questioned by Fitzgerald

I read that Fitz was reviewing Ari's testimony just yesterday. He might be called back to testify again.

[sam sarrha]

5. we could see a lot of this in the future,as the Admin gets more psychotic

:tinfoilhat:

[insane_cratic_gal]

6. We've been speculating

he might be Judy's source...

His last interview contained talk of the shit intell used in Chimp's state of the union address.

you can see for yourself on the WH press site. just wander through the archives, you'll see his last speech was given in 7/2004.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Judith also admitted last week

that she hadn't talked to her source in two years. I think that's a big clue pointing to Ari.

BTW: Gannon was at Ari's going away party that day too.

[FreedomAngel82]

16. Really?

Interesting. Gannon is all over the place, isn't he? Has Fitzegerald looked into him?

[SoCalDem]

22. Ari, Karen, Mary Matalin... The Gang of Three

All are dirty in the Plame case.. Remember the carefully parsed statements .."NOW" in the White House???

harkens hback to all the brouhaha over "Depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." The republicans made such a stink over that, but cannot see a connection with the nonsense that's being regurgitated these days:puke:

[kerry-is-my-prez]

9. When did Karen Hughes and Mary Matalin leave?

Joseph Wilson says that he thinks that Karen Hughes was in the loop also.

[kittenpants]

10. Isn't Matalin on the list of possible leakers too?

I've never known much about her role, but have heard that. Concerning the OP, I agree the Ari has always struck me as being much more in the know than Scotty, but that could just be because he is more skilled at spinning than poor, pathetic moonface.

[rucky]

23. How many people can leak one piece of information?

Rove.

Focus.

[politicaholic]

17. I wouldn't be surprised if Karen Hughes was closely involved...

she's such an insider and steeped in some of the most unscrupulous acts of GW Bush's whole creepy political career.

[Emit]

11. I read from another DU poster he gave notice in May,

just a couple of months before, but that he actually left right around the time Plamegate broke. Maybe he saw it coming.

[E-Z-B]

12. Interesting, indeed

Ari's last day on 7/14: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2003/07/14/aris_last_day.html

The article written on the same day:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.shtml

How do you nominate this? Maybe I don't have enough posts yet.

[Spike from MN]

14. Hmmm...this is rather interesting. From Novak's article:

Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me.

(Emphasis mine.)

TWO senior administration officials? OK, who's the other one besides Rove? Or are there three? According to Cooper, Rove said that
"it was Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip." OK, "authorizing" the trip and "suggested sending him to Niger" aren't exactly the same thing so are there three administration officials (at a minimum) that could go down for this?

[E-Z-B]

25. Good catch.

[davsand]

13. Interesting thought.

Is it possible he didn't have the stomach for what he knew was being done?

Nahhhh....


Laura

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Very interesting timing for sure

Has Ari been looked at?

[tk2kewl]

18. I believe Fitz has had Ari befor the GJ

[Jersey Devil]

20. Also read that Ari has testified (nt)

x

[dogday]

19. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck

do you think it might be a duck?

[devinsgram]

24. As the old saying goes,

rats jump off a sinking ship. Ari knew eventually this was going to come out. I said in the very beginning he is jumping ship.