Posted on 04/07/2006 5:20:39 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
April 7, 2006
That didn't take long! Back in the MSM's Watergate heyday, it took a while for a steady drumbeat of revelations, stories and allegations to gather sufficient momentum. The pace has apparently quickened in the modern liberal-media world. On this morning's Today show, Matt Lauer, speaking of the allegation that President Bush authorized the disclosure of information by Scooter Libby, asked Chris Matthews: "scale of 1 to 10, [where] 10 is a deal-ender, where does this fall?"
Matthews didn't hesitate: "heading to 10."
Even Lauer seemed taken aback: "Really, that big?"
For good measure, Matthews later analogized VP Cheney to Henry II having not-so-subtly put out a hit on a dissenter in his administration.
In support of his seemingly inflated 'grading,' Mathews argued that prior to the Iraq war, "the main argument that sold the most Americans in the political center . . . most people supported the war with Iraq for one reason. The belief that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons."
He continued: "When we found there were no nuclear weaons, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson . . . said he had been sent by the Vice-President to check out this deal that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa. He . . . came back with a report that said there was no such deal."
Concluded Matthews: "Then according to this new tesimony of Scooter Libby, the President of the United States himself authorized the leak of information that would undercut Wilson's case."
Matthews wouldn't be mollified when Lauer suggested that there will be a game of semantics, with people arguing the president "couldn't have leaked classifed information because he has the power to declassify any information." Asked "how will that fly?", Matthews shot back:
"First of all, [former CIA Director] George Tenet knows nothing of this." And later: "What it shows is that the White House is involved in a major effort to undercut Wilson's claims that the emperor has no clothes, there was no nuclear case for war. That's why it goes possibly to a 10."
When Lauer wondered why the President didn't get out in front of this story and explain the situation to the American people, since Libby's allegations were likely to come out in the course of the trial, Matthews responded:
"They may be confident that Scooter Libby will never say 'the Vice-President never said to me 'leak the name of Valerie Plame,' which is the crime here." That's when Matthews then made his lurid historical reference: "It may well be one of those things out of Beckett where the king said 'will no one do this for me?'"
That was an allusion to Henry II having complained to four of his knights about Beckett, the stubborn advocate of the rule of law, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" The knights eventually obliged Henry, hacking Beckett to death with their swords.
Nice analogy, Chris!
I wish the WH would get out in front on this.
massgopguy is correct, the Key Judgements of the NIE were declassified on Oct 07, 2002 by George Tenet. See my post #58 on this thread for the info and links.
So why isn't the White House crowing about this?
I know...I was spitting nails and screaming at the TV last night, LOL! Freaking MSM drives me nuts! This is a manufactured scandal. It took me all of 15 minutes on Google to find the correct info...and these people call themselves reporters?
I sometimes wonder if they have poor communications folks or poor political researchers.
I don't know. If I thought Karl Rove would read an e-mail from me, I'd give him hell!
I'm waiting for the Bushbots to come in and claim it is a brilliant strategy to ignore headlines.
I had it doubly worse last night since the leftist news casts such as Global TV were spewing their made up crap over this. Those bastards were also still saying that Plame woman was a covert secret agent whose name was classified - which is false.
(Nini Totenberg on NPR this morning is but one example.)
Now, according to this media, it may be a crime in effect, if not in reality, if an effort was made to show that Wilson's "report" was misinformation by getting to the public the facts and figures to explicitly show this.
The media's take on release of classified material is selective indeed.
Well, I tried to find Karl's e-mail address and then went to the GOP website to get theirs, but I can't find anything on either one and I know e-mailing the WH would be an exercise in futility...so I e-mailed Jeb Bush the information, as I hear that he is good about responding personally. Hopefully, he will forward this on to the proper people.
If this is such a honking big Number 9+ revelation, you have to wonder why Tim Russert wasn't the one explaining it all to Matt Lauer.
I think NBC honchos know this story is being intentionally reported inaccurately by the MSM herd, and they don't want Tim tarnished by misreporting a story he's personally involved with. Let spit boy do the dirty work for pumpkin head.
The Senate will already be on their 2 week recess. Few of them want a bill passed into law. They just want an issue to bloviate about.
President Bush never has and never needed to leak anything. That is because anything he reveals to the public is not a leak. He has, alone with the VP, the authority to reveal anything which included classified material. Matthews is a stone insane nut. RATS that jump onto this bandwagon are proof that their gray matter has rotted.
What in the hell are you talking about. You are so informed.
Bush in responding to the question of the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, did not come out and say he knew who had "outed" her. He obviously knew, as he was the one that allegedly told others to begin leaking info in an attempt to deflect criticism from her husband and Dims. That is what I was talking about. He had that moment when he acted like he was gung-ho against leakers, when in reality it was he that was allegedly the source. No crime was committed, but it was a moment he will come to regret. Clinton broke no law by having sex with an intern named Monica, but he directly lied to the public, that was what drove his impeachment process. Without that moment, when he easily, and should have said either the truth, or just "none of your business", the investigations and impeachment would never have happened.
Everything bad about W is a 10 for Timmy, hate to bust his fart filled balloon.
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