"Hey .. why not?? We're retired, the boys are out of school, we had no big plans for the summer, we have a limitless supply of cash to harrass the administration and disrupt the '06 elections, and it'll be good for Val's book. But, our hearts ARE heavy."
Soros - 
Peter B. Lewis - 
Peter Lewis - "Aviator" of the Left?
"Unlike his friend George Soros, billionaire Peter B. Lewis is one liberal philanthropist who prefers to keep a low profile. But the reclusive Lewis nonetheless has emerged as a powerful political player —the second biggest contributor to leftwing “527” groups in the 2004 elections.
The Aviator,” last year’s hit film on Howard Hughes, traces the role of the “bashful billionaire” in politics. From a guarded Las Vegas hotel suite, the reclusive Hughes schemes to defeat his political enemies in Washington. Few people meet him face-to-face as, behind the scenes, he cultivates Capitol Hill contacts and dispenses large sums of money to achieve his goals. That’s how Hughes exercised a strong but hidden hand in American politics in the 1950s and 60s.
There has been no one quite like Howard Hughes for a long time. But if anyone qualifies as a reclusive powerbroker these days it is Peter B. Lewis. A graduate of Princeton University and chairman of the Cleveland-based Progressive Insurance Corporation,Lewis oversees America’s third-largest automobile insurer and is worth an estimated $1.6 billion, according to Forbes Magazine.
The 70-year-old Lewis holds the distinction of being the second largest single donor in the 2004 election cycle to the nonparty groups known as “527s” (The name comes from the section of the tax code that permits unlimited donations to such groups.) Lewis donated $16 million to the Joint Victory Committee (the name given to the three largest 527s, which combined t o defeat George W. Bush). He also gave nearly $3 million to America Coming Together, (ACT)—a group that allowed the AFLCIO, Sierra Club and pro-choice Emily’s List to come together—and $2.5 million to the anti-war MoveOn.Org.
(See John Gizzi, “Charge of the 527s,” Foundation Watch, May 2004.)
His aggregate donations of $22,997,000 to 527 groups rival those of his friend, financier George Soros, who was the top 527 donor with gifts totaling $23,450,000. Soros and Lewis are far ahead of third-ranked Hollywood producer Stephen Bing ($13,852,000).
Party nominee Ralph Nader for President and even sent $500 to Republican George W. Bush. Yet within four years, Lewis had become a premier contributor to the effort to defeat Bush.
Whatever motivated Peter Lewis to change his mind remains unclear. He shuns interviews and is rarely photographed.
Yet, as Jane Mayer wrote in the New Yorker, “He has spent much of 2004 discreetly directing millions of dollars to liberal groups allied with the Democratic Party...while cruising the Mediterranean Sea on his two-hundred-and-fifty foot yacht, Lone Ranger.
The yacht has communications equipment that allows Lewis to monitor political developments in America while sunbathing off the coast of Italy.”
Along with his Bush-bashing, financial reports show that Lewis’s favorite causes in 2004 included decriminalizing marijuana, gay rights and the environment. He donated $485,000 to the Marijuana Policy Project, $117,220 to the pro-gay Stonewall Democrats United, $100,000 to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and $100,000 to the Sierra Club.
The cause of marijuana legalization particularly interests Lewis, who openly acknowledges using marijuana and hashish and was arrested in New Zealand in 2000 for possessing them.
But while Soros and Bing are the highprofile subjects of scores of newspaper profiles, Lewis remains a little-known figure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mr. Fitzgerald made it very clear: My wife was a covert officer at the time that these people were leaking her name."
But Fitzgerald would beg to differ:
"I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert. And anything I say is not intended to say anything beyond this: that she was a CIA officer from January 1st, 2002, forward."
Next, Wilson seems to have jettisoned the idea of due process:
"Again, it's now very clear that (Karl Rove) leaked it. Mr. Cooper's sworn testimony indicates that and the emails indicate that."
He really wants that frog-march. So much so that he has overlooked the fact that no indictments have occurred over the "outing" itself.
Wilson also admitted he was a source for the incredibly inaccurate and self-serving May 6, 2003, Kristof column:
"It was important for the Administration to correct the record. ... It is an act of civic duty. It is what citizens across this country do every day in our democracy. You hold your government to account for what your government says and does in the name of the American people."
So it is a civic duty to chat up reporters and embellish what the intelligence actually said about Niger and Iraq? Ah, yes, my heart is just swelling with patriotic music.
And then for the laugher of the evening, Wilson commented on the decision by him and his wife to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair:
"When one is faced with adversity, one of the ways that one acts in the face of adversity is to try and bring a certain amount of humor to the situation. It's called irony. And if people have no sense of humor or no sense of perspective on that, my response is it's about time to get a life."
Humor? Irony? But what happened to St. Valerie, the put-upon hero whose very life was risked by the leakers? You're joking about that?! Let's face it, were Libby and Rove the ones who were out peddling pictures of her to national magazines?
Then Wilson revealed what must be the ultimate motive, when asked if there would be civil lawsuits:
"We're keeping all of our options open." Cha-ching!" 