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Lawyer Knew Rove Was a Source, Reporter Says
New York Times ^ | December 11, 2005 | David Johnston

Posted on 12/11/2005 5:27:56 PM PST by Zeppo

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 - A lawyer for Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, learned in the first half of 2004 that Mr. Rove had probably been a source for the magazine's July 2003 article that mentioned the C.I.A. officer who has come to be at the heart of the C.I.A. leak case, a Time reporter wrote today.

The Time reporter, Viveca Novak, wrote in a first-person article published on the magazine's Web site that she met with Robert D. Luskin, a lawyer for Mr. Rove, on three occasions in early 2004. She said it was probably during one of these meetings that she raised the possibility that Mr. Rove had discussed the C.I.A. officer with a Time colleague, Matthew Cooper.

Ms. Novak's conversation with Mr. Luskin has been under scrutiny by the special counsel in the leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald. In her article, Ms. Novak wrote that the prosecutor sought to question her about the matter after Mr. Luskin told Mr. Fitzgerald of their conversation about Mr. Rove in the belief that the information would help Mr. Rove.

...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cialeak; luskin; novak; plame; rove; vivecanovak
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This has been reported elsewhere, but the interesting (albeit expected) wrinkle here is that the New York Times publishes this article with the misleading headline "Lawyer Knew Rove Was a Source, Reporter Says", when the substance of the article is that Luskin did NOT know about Rove having spoken to Time Magazine's Cooper until Time Magazine's Viveca Novak revealed it to him.

Therefore, an honest headline might be "Lawyer Did Not Know That Rove Was a Source, Reporter Says", which is the opposite of the NYT headline. Now, perhaps there is some twisted, tortured reading of the article that corresponds to the headline, but I don't see it, and most of the NYT readers will be fooled into thinking that this article exposes a "gotcha" against Karl Rove and his lawyer, when of course the opposite is the truth. Of course, the article contains other essentially false information, which is what we've come to expect from the New York Times, and so I haven't bothered commenting on the details in the article beyond the misleading headline...

The upshot is that people who rely on the NY Times for their news are so frequently left in the dark...

1 posted on 12/11/2005 5:27:58 PM PST by Zeppo
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To: Zeppo

they know that no one can follow this case anymore with all these twists and turns - so they can just make up their own version of events for the headlines.

"all the news that fits, we print"


2 posted on 12/11/2005 5:29:53 PM PST by oceanview
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To: Zeppo
The upshot is that people who rely on the NY Times for their news are so frequently left in the dark...

Start a tip board on which Dem Senator reads this into the Record from the Floor of the Senate.

3 posted on 12/11/2005 5:31:17 PM PST by digger48
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To: Zeppo

bttt


4 posted on 12/11/2005 5:31:53 PM PST by nopardons
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To: Zeppo
Remind me again. Why are we wasting time reading the NYT? It's like reading and commenting on Pravda.

Just kidding. Enemy research is an important activity in any war.

5 posted on 12/11/2005 5:32:17 PM PST by InterceptPoint
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To: InterceptPoint

the NYT is more then just a single newspaper. its the "head of the snake" in the liberal MSM. Bernard Goldberg describes this very well in his books, how the entire structure of the MSM feeds from whatever the NYT publishes - the network news, the liberal cable news, regional newspapers, etc.


6 posted on 12/11/2005 5:34:07 PM PST by oceanview
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To: Zeppo

Just a bit of harmless confusion on the part of the headline writer, no doubt. He meant to say "Lawyer knew Reporter was Source" but just got a little confused.

:-}


7 posted on 12/11/2005 5:35:03 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Zeppo
Well the reporter knew whether Rove was a source or not right off the bat.

This is a reverse Watergate. Back then, Nixon and co. knew what they knew, and the media was trying to find out what it was. But now, the media knows what it knows, and the government is trying to find out.

8 posted on 12/11/2005 5:35:26 PM PST by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: digger48

Pelosi


9 posted on 12/11/2005 5:36:41 PM PST by Stayingawayfromthedarkside (The stink you smell are the liberals fuming after Ann speaks!!!)
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To: Zeppo

Mr. Rove had PROBABLY been a source...

She said it was PROBABLY during one of these meetings...


Like, who cares?


10 posted on 12/11/2005 5:36:50 PM PST by OldEagle (May you live long enough to hear the legends of your own adventures.)
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To: Zeppo
She said it was probably during one of these meetings that she raised the possibility that Mr. Rove had discussed the C.I.A. officer with a Time colleague, Matthew Cooper.
I would like to have my facts be a little more confirmed than "Probably" and 'Possibly"
11 posted on 12/11/2005 5:37:09 PM PST by Phrostie
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To: Zeppo

Saw photo of Valerie Plame leaving her driveway recently. Attractive woman, but also seemed to me to be very confidently enjoying the whole thing. Then again what would you expect from an alleged CIA analyst who sends her hubby on an intelligence mission, and then sits on her hands as he lies his butt off about it in public. In other words, just what game is she playing with our national security and why is no one looking into it? She should have been fired Separating her husband's behavior from her is a farce.


12 posted on 12/11/2005 5:37:12 PM PST by Williams
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To: Phrostie
Fitzgerald is pinning his "case" on Libby's supposed willful perjury and obstruction, and is discounting the possibility that Libby may simply have had an inexact recollection of certain events, dates, and the order in which certain things happened. Yet the list of other people connected to this case who do not have clear recollections of dates, times, places, subjects of conversations, etc. but are apparently not in any legal jeopardy is huge and growing almost daily.

At least Miller, Woodward, and Viveca Novak have documented such difficulties with their recollections. And, at least Cooper and Russert have different recollections from those of the administration officials that they talked to, but that is almost certainly a real-life version of Rashomon rather than evidence of criminality. And Mitchell is backpedalling as fast as she can away from her own on-the-record remarks. Wilson has admitted to being confused about when he knew about the Niger documents being a forgery, and how he could have known that the document had the wrong names and dates even without having seen it (although there is a more sinister explanation which anybody with half a brain can figure out). We still do not know who Robert Novak's source was, nor do we know (other than through rumors) who Woodward's source was. Kristof and Pincus and Corn have yet to come clean on all that they know. But the idea that there is one and only one "truth" that can be discerned by a jury is looking ever more laughable by the day.

If all of those reporters (who are supposed to be keeping accurate notes about these things) can not get dates and places and conversations straight, why should someone such as Libby be expected to do so, especially when the underlying matter was not of great importance at the time? To anybody who has been paying attention, Fitzgerald's work has been revealed to be a cruel farce. Too bad that NY Times readers don't have a clue about any of that...

13 posted on 12/11/2005 6:27:46 PM PST by Zeppo
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To: Zeppo
Wow, what a clever little spin the NY Times put on this. If you go on and read the article- clearly the NY Times reveals that he did not know that Rove had revealed anything to Cooper- At the time of her 2004 conversation with the lawyer, Ms. Novak wrote, Mr. Luskin seemed surprised when she told him that Mr. Cooper had spoken with Mr. Rove. PS. It doesn't matter if Luskin knew if Karl Rove had
14 posted on 12/11/2005 6:44:34 PM PST by KCRW
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To: Zeppo
The upshot is that people who rely on the NY Times for their news are so frequently left in the dark...

I no longer subscribe to the NY Times, because that is equivalent to giving a contribution to the DNC.

15 posted on 12/11/2005 7:25:40 PM PST by syriacus (People who seem "nutty" can STILL be dangerous bombers -- Edw. Leary firebombed NYC subway 1994)
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To: Phrostie

"I would like to have my facts be a little more confirmed than "Probably" and 'Possibly""

And the dems would like you to have your facts be a little more confused with 'probably' and 'possibly'.


16 posted on 12/11/2005 7:40:15 PM PST by freema (Proud Marine Mom-What fools they are who doubt the ability of liberty to triumph over despotism)
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To: syriacus

Attorney client privilige.

Is she saying that Mr. Rove's attorney breached his attorney client privilige?

That attorney is in a world of hurt if he did.


17 posted on 12/11/2005 7:44:49 PM PST by Pikachu_Dad
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To: Pikachu_Dad

I doubt Luskin is that stupid.


18 posted on 12/11/2005 8:08:28 PM PST by Perdogg ("Facts are stupid things." - President Ronald Wilson Reagan)
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To: Perdogg

I doubt it also.

And THAT point is why the article is probably false. Attornies are notoriously tight lipped.


19 posted on 12/11/2005 8:17:36 PM PST by Pikachu_Dad
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To: Zeppo

They keep hoping Plamegate is going to interest people. And hoping and hoping and hoping...


20 posted on 12/11/2005 8:22:45 PM PST by skr
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