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 batters 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 Bogarts 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
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.
Who was the stranger on the street!!!?
The above mentioned names will all be prosecution witnesses. Cross should be brutal.
Slick Willie and Hillary Rotten would be breaking rocks on Devil's island forever.
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.
.
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.
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.....
I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, with geometric logic.
-PJ
She was not covert.
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.
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.
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.
If the G.J. expires today, then in reality Rove is in the clear unless something new and unexpected turns up, right?
he seemed to like Carol. Hope they're not entangled.
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"?
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.
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