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Patrick Fitzgerald Does a Star Tour as Captain Queeg
Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 28 October 2005 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

Posted on 10/28/2005 1:05:49 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob

This is a very curious press conference just conducted by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. With his machine-gun delivery. He repeatedly flopped back and forth between saying that the “outing” of Valerie Plame, wife of discredited Ambassador Joe Wilson was a “serious matter,” and saying that he “reached no conclusion” whether she had been outed, and if so, when and by whom.

The mood in the room among the reporters changed appreciably as the conference went on. Initially, the press was very interested in the charges made and reasons for them, and in the charges not made against other people, and the reasons why not. But by the end of the conference, the reporters were clearly puzzled by the wandering speech of Fitzgerald and his lame analogies about a baseball pitcher throwing at a batter’s head, and a bank robber with his fingerprint on the holdup note and a signed confession.

Again and again, Mr. Fitzgerald said that it was “vital” that he and his Grand Jury should get to the end of the process with a “clear understanding of all of the facts.” Yet, again and again, he replied to reporters’ questions by saying that he “had not reached a conclusion” about central facts of the matter concerning either Valerie Plame or Joe Wilson.

Source: this is written as the press conference is under way. The transcript will surely be posted on the Internet within minutes.

Toward the end of the conference, I realized what I was watching. Fitzgerald was offering the press and the nation a version of Humphrey Bogart’s star turn in his last film as Phillip Francis Queeg, the Captain of the USS Caine in The Caine Mutiny (1954). The turning point in that film came when the obsessive Captain comes apart on the stand while being cross-examined by the lawyer for the mutineers in their trial.

Beginning with the exposure of Captain Queeg as obsessive in the story about the missing strawberries from the mess hall, the Captain visibly unravels. As he does so, he takes two ball bearings from his pocket and begins to play with them in his hand.

Fitzgerald seems to be a similar person. He is wound far too tight. He is obsessing about a few conversations with reporters (where it might be the reporters, not Scooter Libby, who are either lying or maybe just poorly remembering what happened years ago). At the same time, Fitzgerald is deliberately ignoring the larger fact that a war is going on, and must be won. It was just like Captain Queeg.

Fitzgerald had everything except the strawberries, and the ball bearings. By the end, I think many of the reporters had reached the same conclusion.

John_Armor@aya.yale.edu


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: ballbearings; captainqueeg; cialeak; cz; grandjury; joewilson; patrickfitzgerald; strawberries; thecainemutiny; traitor; valerieplame
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To: Congressman Billybob

He claims that he does not know why Libby "lied".
Excuse me, but do you send someone off to prison if you don't know what his motive was for "lying"? What did he have to gain? Was he protecting someone? Fitzgerald doesn't know the motive?
I'm confused.
P.S. He did appear a little obsessive during his press conference.


61 posted on 10/28/2005 1:36:38 PM PDT by ocjones
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To: Shermy
I want to read Novak's column NOW!

Who was the stranger on the street!!!?

62 posted on 10/28/2005 1:36:41 PM PDT by mosquitobite (What we permit; we promote. ~ Mark Sanford for President!)
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To: dirtboy
Imagine a laywer putting Miller or Cooper or Russert on the stand, asking whether they knew about Plame's CIA status beforehand, and then asking them how they knew.

The above mentioned names will all be prosecution witnesses. Cross should be brutal.

63 posted on 10/28/2005 1:36:45 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Mesocons for Rice '08)
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To: decal
According to the info I pulled up on Google, Caine Mutiny was his last "major" film role, and he died three years later.

John / Billybob
64 posted on 10/28/2005 1:37:21 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob (Quoted by the BBC this time, on Wednesday.)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Why couldn't we have found this guy Fitzgerald instead of Starr?

Slick Willie and Hillary Rotten would be breaking rocks on Devil's island forever.

65 posted on 10/28/2005 1:37:29 PM PDT by Agent Smith (Fallujah delenda est. (I wish))
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To: Congressman Billybob
Queeg fits. I thought it was self-serving and preening.

Limbaugh's take was that Fitz knows it's weak, and he's hoping somebody comes forward to implicate Rove.

It may be that Fiztgerald is trying to justify two years for something that a look at Plame's "status", the dates, and a
reading of the Identities Protection Act could have been dismissed in two minutes.

66 posted on 10/28/2005 1:37:48 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Congressman Billybob
I thought of a different captain, namely Ahab, but what we're both thinking of is the same, except, of course for the little chrome balls.
67 posted on 10/28/2005 1:39:59 PM PDT by George Smiley (This tagline deliberately targeted journalists.)
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.


68 posted on 10/28/2005 1:40:03 PM PDT by Mo1
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To: MamaLucci

I watched the entire press conference. Fitzgerald was extremely nervous. He repeatedly fumbled over his words, referred to people by the wrong gender and was sweating profusely. His baseball analogy was convoluted and unhelpful (and I'm a huge baseball fan). My initial reaction was "That's it?" My brother phoned with the exact same reaction. This was a huge waste of time & gov't resources. Also, we've only heard one side of the story. The media has already convicted Libby, but I'll wager he has a very different story to tell.


69 posted on 10/28/2005 1:40:23 PM PDT by calreaganfan
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To: gusopol3

It's obvious the boy likes the camera's and the spotlight. An old country saying if "bull$hit was music, the boy would be a one man brass band" seems an accurate description. How else can you explain an hour and a half of saying nothing!! Also sure is funny that he knew a bunch of the reporters by their first names.....


70 posted on 10/28/2005 1:41:09 PM PDT by RVN Airplane Driver (Thanks America for not slapping us in the face again.)
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To: Regicide
But it was the Strawberries, see?

I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, with geometric logic.

-PJ

71 posted on 10/28/2005 1:41:32 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (It's still not safe to vote Democrat.)
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To: OkiMusashi
It's now pretty obvious that Libby (or anybody else, ftm) did not "knowingly" out a "covert agent".

She was not covert.

72 posted on 10/28/2005 1:41:36 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Mesocons for Rice '08)
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To: Congressman Billybob

Caught Fitzgerald's news conference and was not impressed. He certainly sounded like he was on a mission to take an administration scalp. Why didn't he go after Wilson for lying and Ms. Plame for obstucting the government of the US.
Bottom line Fitzgerald is a political hack supported by Chuckie Schumer. I hope Bush pardons Libby and nominates Luttig to the Supremes this weekend.


73 posted on 10/28/2005 1:42:35 PM PDT by KenmcG414
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To: steveo; NormsRevenge; Congressman Billybob; Boazo; PhilDragoo; reagan_fanatic; ...
"What a time to give a news conference with a big old zit between your eyebrows"

Well, COULD it be that a Pinocchio could be growing a second nose? (What did Gepetto Wilson know and when did he know it?)


74 posted on 10/28/2005 1:42:39 PM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance (SAVE THE BRAINFOREST! Boycott the RED Dead Tree Media & NUKE the DNC Class Action Temper Tantrum!)
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To: Calvin Locke

could be the GJers, knowing DC Demos, were kicking up such a fuss, he felt he had to give them something. It was surprising to hear him admit that he didn't know the final indictment document was going to openly state that one of the counts of perjury came as a reult of a response to a GJer.


75 posted on 10/28/2005 1:42:45 PM PDT by gusopol3
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To: Decepticon; Howlin; Congressman Billybob; kristinn
"Fitzgerald seemed honest enough, if he is correct, Libby lied to a grand jury. Duh....prosecute. This is a whole lot of zero."

Fitz did us a favor. Marc Rich's attorney is now gone from the Naval Observatory (VP's residence).

Libby won't be missed, except perhaps by liberal reporters who used him as their White house "inside source."

Which is to say that a liberal witch hunt has bagged their own spy.

76 posted on 10/28/2005 1:42:57 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: gusopol3; Calvin Locke

If the G.J. expires today, then in reality Rove is in the clear unless something new and unexpected turns up, right?


77 posted on 10/28/2005 1:43:01 PM PDT by colorado tanker (I can't comment on things that might come before the Court, but I can tell you my Pinochle strategy)
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To: RVN Airplane Driver

he seemed to like Carol. Hope they're not entangled.


78 posted on 10/28/2005 1:44:13 PM PDT by gusopol3
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To: calreaganfan

Thanks.......I really can't believe that such a nervous Norvis would have the balls to take on the entrenched Daley administration in Chicago. As to the tone of the presser, did you get the impression that Fitzgerald's investigation was limited in scope to "who outed Valerie "SPY" Plame"?


79 posted on 10/28/2005 1:44:51 PM PDT by MamaLucci (Mutually assured destruction STILL keeps the Clinton administration criminals out of jail.)
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To: Congressman Billybob
So basically, after US troops found (1)500 tons of uranium (yellow cake) in Iraq and 1.8 tons of partially enriched uranium (easy stuff for their neighbor Iran to utilize) and we had to fight with the UN about its removal, we are now fighting as to why CIA spin (and deception) and French forgeries shouldn't have been relied upon instead of the correct predictions of the Bush Administration leaders when talking to the citizens of our country.

Dr. Strangelove was clearly short of the stupidity that governments are capable of exhibiting with the help of what passes for a free press and a loyal opposition party.

80 posted on 10/28/2005 1:44:56 PM PDT by KC Burke (Men of intemperate minds can never be free....)
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