Just remember these same DC news insiders KNEW the WH outed Plame but chose

[blm]

to protect Cheney and Rove throughout 2003 and 2004 with their silence about their involvement.

Chris Matthews knew. Tim Russert knew. Matt Cooper knew. All stayed silent to protect Bush in an election year. They kept telling us what a straightshooter Bush is. How great his integrity is. Sterling character, they told us.

You think even some Dems didn't know about this? Mandy Grunwald is married to Matt Cooper - she knew. Carville is married to Matalin - Cheney's confidante and member of the WH Iraq Group - a POLITICAL STRATEGIST by profession, no doubt she helped Cheney - no doubt Carville knew.

Every one of these people let Joe Wilson out to hang, as they allowed the RW media to cast him as a liar, and exaggerator, and as a hitman for the Kerry campaign. They did so without acknowledging how MUCH of the truth they actually knew - knew as far back as summer of 2003.

Now, people like Fineman and Matthews act shocked that all of this is falling on Cheney and the WH. Bullshit. They knew.

[PCIntern]

1. they all make me want to vomit

fast as a comet...

[peace13]

2. Very important point!

The same individuals ignored the peace vigils of 2004. We will see how the story gets recorded this time around. Beware if they ignore it again! Ya know... fool me once ya can't get fooled again!

[seemslikeadream]

3. no better than Ollie North or Richard Secord

they think they know what is in our best interest

[blm]

11. Secrecy and privilege - and now they have coopted most of the newsmedia owners.

Just great.

[Unperson]

20. They don't care about "us" or the U.S.

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Yeah. I heard someone say that this revelation about Cheney being deeply involved

in the outing of Plame "was a surprise to us all. We had no idea how much he was involved in this." I thought it odd that he had to clarify that for us. It hit me as a strange comment for a journalist to make. I can't remember who said it though. It could have been the CNN guy who is covering DC...Ed Henry?

[blm]

10. By the time this came out they were all on the phone with each other comparing notes.

The original 6 probably shot up to 2 dozen within 24hrs.

[hootinholler]

5. But what did they have to gain?

Playing devil's advocate here for a second, really, what was the payoff. Even though I agree with your point, I can't for the life of me figure out what the payoff could be that's worth sacrificing your country.

-Hoot

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. ACCESS to the WH and info from KKKRove. n/t

[blm]

18. and who signed their paychecks or negotiated their TV contracts?

People like Jack Welch and his thug successor.

[CTyankee]

7. Evidently, the "get" of a really big name on a show is the prize.

So this does not surprise me. Ratings are the thing, the only thing. They are driven by it. You can appreciate it if you understand that people's mortgage payment and thier lifestyle is dependent on their being subservient to the White House.

Really bad and really horrible. But so human.

[blm]

8. They make millions from corporations who make billions off their defense industry

parent companies.

And I really believe they thought Rove was slick enough to get the whole WH off the hook. They believed in Bush's teflon - the teflon they helped create.

[peacetalksforall]

9. Know what - it feels great to know we can trust our gut - all those

who measured the words of Joe Wilson when he went to print, then radio and print to provide the background (Air America appearances, also) ... our gut told us that we could trust a man of his stature even though some would want to believe anything that placed this WH in a bad light. We, who are so used to getting burned by liars, trusted him. Kudos to him who drew a line about what he would say when the rest of us figured out that it was more about destroying Brewster-Jennings than his family, though equally devestating in their own way. He didn't go there and it made him honorable. What was said was enough to get this started.

So, tonight, knowing what we learned today, it doesn't look like it goes backwards from here.

We may not learn what might have been covered up with the eruption that ended Brewster-Jennings, but the Wilsons have been a class act and that counts for plenty.

[blm]

13. I'd bet anything it was protecting the same cabal involved in armsdealing

and terror through BCCI and IranContra - - the same group that had been operating all along even after BCCI was closed, and then came back into full power in the US.

[WiseButAngrySara]

12. They knew, and they are equally responsible for the current unimaginable

mess that we are in today. I hate them all.

[TacticalPeek]

14. Matthews is not acting shocked. He called Cheney and Libby out early.

Earlier than anyone, actually. And when Karl Rove called him to say Valerie Plame was 'fair game', as soon as they hung up, Matthews called Joe Wilson and told him, and later reported it on Hardball.

July 13, 2003

MATTHEWS: Now let's go to this. What I know. Joe Wilson, former ambassador in Africa gets this passed by the CIA to go down to Niger and check out the reports that there were some traffic in Uranium with Saddam Hussein. That he was trying to get some Uranium from them. He gets back and reports to the CIA. Nothing doing. It's a dry hole. There's no such traffic. The original request for that information was from the vice-president's office. The vice-president knew this was a dry hole, there was no hard evidence of a trade of Uranium out of Niger to Saddam Hussein. Why did the vice-president, knowing that and his people, Scooter Libby and the rest of the them, why didn't they stop this in the president's speech? Why did they let him say something that's not true?

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/chrismatthews/071303.asp

And the lies Libby is indicted for stem partly from his conversation with Tim Russert complaining about this appearance by Matthews:

Right after the indictment was released to the media, Tim Russert told MSNBC viewers that Lewis Libby called him that day to complain about a reporter's comments on a cable show.
He did not identify the reporter or the show.

A little sleuthing on Lexis-Nexis turned up this Hardball transcript for July 8, 2003. The reporter is Chris Matthews, who repeatedly states that the Vice President's office had the CIA send Joseph Wilson to Niger. Here are the revelant portions of the transcript:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeralyn-merritt/russert-and-libby-the-sh_b_9762.html

[H2O Man]

15. Right.

If one reads the first page of Wilson's book, it is not possible to believe the OP's claim about Matthews .... unless, of course, one does not believe Wilson.

[blm]

17. Matthews admitted it at first and then let the RW talking points get repeated constantly

on his show. I heard him many times agree with GOP hitmen that Wilson had a credibility problem of his own.

Matthews let the game against Wilson play out when he could have stepped in and stopped it. I was thrilled at first with Matthews on this, but shortly after he stepped too cautiously and let the GOP hitmen have their say far too often, and far too often without countering the lies.

[KoKo]

21. NBC was totally involved. Makes one wonder if the MSNBC/GE/NBC

CNBC crowd isn't the most duplicitous of all.

[blm]

16. At first, then Matthews joined the game of challenging Wilson's credibility and let

GOP talking heads slander him without counter. This went on throughout 2004, too.

There was many a DU thread on those shows where the constant talking points were that Wilson had a credibility problem, he was attacking WH for Kerry campaign, Plame wasn't under cover, and no way was the WH involved.

Matthews could have stopped it cold, and didn't. He could have denied the liars a forum and didn't.

[H2O Man]

19. While there were many

threads that made claims about Matthews regarding the Plame case, they were often highly inaccurate. The truth is that Matthews has never questioned if the White House was involved. He knew it was, and made that clear. In fact, the reason Libby called Russert was to complain about Matthews' reporting on Hardball on Libby's role in the scandal. Regarding, for but one example, his reporting on the yellow cake lie in his July 8, 2003 show -- the day after the NY Times op-ed -- Chris Matthews said it "sounds to me (like it came from) a hawk in the vice president's office, probably from Scooter Libby...."

In "Hubris," Corn & Isikoff note that Libby and other neoconservatives accused Matthews of being anti-Semitic. (page 266) I always question the attacks on Matthews, no matter where they are found, because I think that Libby & Co are still intent upon discrediting him in any way possible.

[blm]

23. There's the rub with Matthews - he's great speaking the truth one day

and the next he lets the RW lie machine go unchallenged, as he did quite often re Wilson's credibility in all this c2004. Maybe he was trying to bend over backwards to appease the NBC brass and Russert, but, it left a bad impression to us media watchdogs looking for more accuracy in the reporting of Plame and less RW spin against Wilson and Plame.

[Virginia Dare]

22. The very same ones who are protecting the WH...

in regards to Bush's mental and addiction problems.

[indepat]

24. Unmistakable enemies within?

[happydreams]

25. Thanks for reminding us blm. This can't be repeated often enough.

K&R!

:hi: