Posted on 07/16/2005 7:55:07 AM PDT by 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.
Like I said, whoever you are, you aren't a Republican OR a conservative if you actually believe what you posted.
Their first target was Tom Delay. Prior to that it was Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld.
LOL! My first thought when Fenn said "This may go all the way to the top" was -- Hillary?
I wouldn't be surprised if you had a couple of them vote to convict President Bush and remove him from office, but they'll still be way short of making it actually happen. The absolute worst-case scenario would have the seven moderate RINOs in the filibuster deal voting to convict, plus Voinovich and Hagel and Trent Lott, figuring this would be the ultimate payback for his being deposed in 2002.
That's still only 55 votes, assuming every Dim votes to convict as well. That's 12 votes short of the number needed to remove Bush from office. IOW, it'll never happen. I bet they don't even get a majority.
And that's the "weak" chamber of Congress. In the House, you'd maybe get Chris Shays and that guy Walter Jones to impeach, but a lot of red-state democrats wouldn't go near it with a 39-1/2 foot pole, no matter how much Nancy Pelosi threatens them.
I think you've both got it. Wilson stepped in it big time. Plame is the NYT soure (outing herself!). Corn is busy re-explaining that it wasn't he who outed Plame (following Wilson's confession). Rove's only grievance was in trying to protect his old confidante, Novak. Wilson is a vindictive, partisan, hack, with delusions of being Phillip Agee, and so he should be burned by Fitzgerald.
I agree that GW should not have allowed himself to be cowed into apologizing for the british Niger yellowcake intel, which at the time no-one could prove to be true or false. And which in fact turned out to have been true.
PS: I agree, I'm sure we send only our best and brightest Ambassadors to Gabon, another region totally screwed up by French colonialism.
This is stupidity. I've seen several dem strategists on the talking head shows the last few days, and they are all pathetically desperate and strident. This is no different. I'd be shocked to find out that Dubya knew who Valerie Plame was before Novak wrote his column.
bump
Payback for Monicagate, Travelgate, Whitewatergate, Paula Jonesgate, Broderickgate, Wileygate, BillingRecordsgate,WebHubbelgate, Fostergate, Browngate, Renogate,
FBIRecordsgate, or Clinton (was a bad boy gate).
Peter Fenn is an idiot. It's interesting, though, that the memo was to the State Dept. Sounds like someone in the State Dept. may have leaked it. And Wilson was in the State Dept.
Someone who did not like Wilson, perhaps?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
If the Vice President succeeds the president with less than half of the term for which he was elected remaining, then he could then run for two more terms. The maximum time any president can serve under these circumstances is ten years. However, it's not going to happen.
I am a conservative and a Republican and I believe that Bush's failure to effectively defend our borders (provide for the common defense) could serve as a prima facia cause for his resignation or expulsion from office. His signing of McCain's CFR, one of the most aggregious assaults on free speech in US history, could easliy suffice as charge number two. With the SCOTUS busy trampling upon private property rights, looks like GW has a lot of company.
You can "believe" you're the King of England; doesn't make it true.
My use of the term "believe" implies that I have though it through, and come to a conclusion, as many conservatives have also done. Perhaps you are not in tune with currrent events? PS: Your arguments would be better served were you to resist your usual impulse for launching simplistic ad-hominem attacks.
Not as many as you'd love to claim though; "the base" is sticking with Bush.
And if I was interested in your critique of my posting habits, I would have asked for it.
LOL! You nailed it.
For that particular Grand Jury.
We have a Winner!!!!!!!!
I trust Karl Rove, NOT Peter Fenn, and certainly NOT Pat Buchanon.
Let the democRATS bitch, piss, moan and complain all over the place, and then we can sit back and watch them implode.....AGAIN !! Just imagine the embarrassment of self destruction with the whole world watching, and just in time for the 2006 elections. I can see the Republican commercials now........hehehehe
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.