Dem Strategist Suggests on MSNBC that President May Be Focus of Leak Probe

MSNBC News | 07/16/2005 | MSNBC

[RightFighter]

On MSNBC a little while ago, they had a story about the "politics of the CIA leak". The reporter was interviewing Pat Buchanan and Democratic strategist Peter Fenn. What follows is the best transcript I could piece together quickly. I've quoted Fenn word for word.

PAT BUCHANAN: It's very, very serious...There is a credibility problem for the press secretary...There is no legal problem for Rove...Reporters in Washington have a gleam in their eye and smiles on their faces, and there's a reason for it...Pat Fitzgerald hasn't been digging for two years and judges haven't been sending reporters to jail because they don't have anything...Everyone in town (Washington) feels there is something very, very serious and today's story in the NY Times where a memo was floating around aboard Air Force One about Wilson's trip to Africa indicates this could be very big stuff.

ALEX: Peter, what kind of big stuff could Pat be referring to?

PETER FENN: Alex, this is not a third-rate burglary. The focus had been on White House staff. Now, as Pat says, with this memo from the State Department about Wilson, about his wife, about the connection, it was brought onto Air Force One by Secretary Powell. I cannot imagine, Alex, that if he's going up and down the aisles with that memo as he was supposed to have been, that he did not discuss it with the President of the United States. I cannot imagine that there were not phone calls from Ari Fleischer, the Press Secretary who was on board, back to the White House about this. This was precisely at the time when Wilson was about to publish his article. Folks knew about his position about weapons of mass destruction. I have a sense that this may go all the way to the top.

[Darkwolf377]

That's a good analysis--they have walked into a corner on Rove, so they have to pick a fresh angle. Watch for the ridiculous Ron Reagan (who yesterday could not get it through his thick skull why Monica Crowley was comparing this story to the Sandy Burger one) and the insane Keith "Where's my meds?" Olberman to feature this angle.

[McGavin999]

The Grand Jury expires in October, if I'm right, they are the ones who are onto something and the special prosecutor is interested in what they are pursuing.

I think there WILL be indictments coming out of this, but if I were the media, I wouldn't be running around with smiles on my face because they just not might like where those indictments go.

[Reactionary]

They'll keep it rolling for as long as they can. It doesn't matter that calling for the resignations of Powell, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and Rove didn't work out. It also doesn't matter that each time they try to convince the country that the administration has committed a crime it is later shown to be based on lies and selective reporting.

The strategy they're using is quite simple: Make endless charges of illegality to create the impression that the administration is corrupt. When each charge is disproven, move on to the next. Always play offense. Never go on the defensive. Never address charges that have already been disproven.

[Darkwolf377]

I don't think he has to wrap up by any date. There's an investigation into, I think, Cisneros that's STILL going on.

[Darkwolf377]

What I can't understand is why we can't get someone in the CIA to get in front of a microphone and say one sentence: Valerie Plame WAS covert at the time" or "Valerie Plame was NOT covert at the time," because it's academic now that everyone is talking about her.

[savedbygrace]

PETER FENN: I have a sense that this may go all the way to the top.

Kofi Annan's involved in this?

[COUNTrecount]

I REALLY like your scenario.

[Praxeologue]

MSNBC has the best looking babes.

FR has the best looking babes.

[Sooth2222]

"After Justice Department prosecutor Noel Hillman allowed Berger to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, he requested what some consider an extraordinarily light sentence given the gravity of the crime - a $10,000 fine, a three-year suspension of Berger's security clearance and no jail time.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/7/13/190705.shtml

Perhaps Mr. Burglar didn't fulfill his part of the plea agreement?

Were Hillary's fingerprints found on the stolen documents anywhere?

[atlanta67]

you could be right here.

Dems would be desperate enough to block SCOTUS nominations that they might even try to impeach with no crime comitted.

Just the talk of impeachment will slow down to even stop a SCOTUS nomination

[Txsleuth]

I am a bit out of the loop, I guess---I went to bed early last night with a headache....

WHAT memo was this debate about?

I am confused about what memo we are discusssing here...

Can you help me out?

[tobyhill]

I think the CIA doesn't want to disrupt this investigations by getting in front of the microphone but they have sent messages out that does indicate she was not covert.
Former covert CIA agent Fred Rustmann, Washington Times, 15 July 2005 said that "she made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat...Her neighbors knew this, her friends knew this, his friends knew this." It was the position of the CIA, according to Rustmann, that she was a "non-official cover," or NOC, until 1997, and hadn't been out as that type of agent since then, instead having overt status."

[Wuli]

From who "published" the "outing" of Valerie Plame (which was not an outing), i.e. Novak, then Cooper, we already know that Cooper's source was Rove, whose sources were Novak and one other journalist and that Novak's primary source was a "high up" admin official whose "not really very partisan".

So, where is this memo about Wilson from? State Dept. And who was a very high up and perceived-as not-so-partisan admin official? So who might have been Judith Miller's source and Novak's source?

Colin Powell. Who the Dims and the MSM just love.

And if that's the case, Bush has already sacked his leaker.

[dfwgator]

They should change their moniker from MSNBC to MSDNC.

[hophead]

Who the hell knows whats been going on. All I see is that the dems are DESPERATE for a second term scandal. Whether they dig one up is anyone's guess. I don't think this is the one though.

Their first target was KR. Didn't stick, now they are fishing it seems.

I do see a serious distraction from real news like all the economic good news coming out over the past few weeks. The dems can't stand to let that get on the front burner.
The "got ya" politics has got to stop though. ALL these people are acting like 5 year olds. They should be doing what needs to be done and stop all the partisan political bullshit. That's not what they are getting paid to do.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Calling President Bush a traitor and advocating machine gunning down Mexican migrants, and lining the border area with claymores has become acceptable.

Indeed.

Much like it has become acceptable to lump every conservative who has concerns about the border and illegal immigration with Pat Buchanon and his tiny band of goosestepping neo-Know-Nothings.



I guess that, since most of us remain unconvinced by the old illegal immigrants are good for the economy shuck-and-jive, or the fallacy that it is impossible for a sovereign nation to assert some control of its own borders, you will now resort to dragging the politically-dead corpse of Patrick Buchanon onstage for one last beating?

[CaptSkip]

Peter Fenn = Winnie man...worm.

[Darkwolf377]

Yes, I've heard him talking about this, but it still makes no sense to me why the CIA couldn't call a press conference and have someone simply announce her status at the time of the article--I don't see how that disrupts any investigation. Even if she were covert at the time, she isn't now. And if she were, the CIA should be telling the American people, which the CIA works for, if we are in the middle of a huge scandal or a political smear. I don't see how that would affect any investigation.

But as you've pointed out, it IS interesting how I have yet to see or hear even ONE non-journalist claim she was covert at the time.

[Pukin Dog]

He is the ultimate ego maniac and has NEVER EVER gotten over the fact that the Republican Party did not follow him over a cliff.

Exactly right. Well put.

[Txsleuth]

I started out kind of like Scarborough, only because he seemed relatively normal compared to everyone else on MSNBC..

But, a long time ago, he was discussing his book that he wrote, about Washington backroom deals, and all of the "bad" stuff that happened behind closed doors...

He was only a congresscritter for a what, 2-3 terms? Anyway, he finished his "rant" by lambasting lobbyists that would come to his office and offer under the table $$$$ to vote for/against their interests....

He laughed and said that he would listen to them, but then go out on the House floor and vote his "conscience", not the way then wanted...(at that point, I was with him, thinking this is a stand up guy)....but then, he REALLY laughed and said, "Yeah, they would lobby me, and leave an envelope on my desk with thousands of dollars in it, but I would proceed to vote opposite to what they wanted....AND I WOULD KEEP THE MONEY!!!"

Since then, I won't watch him!