PING
This will further confuse Chris Matthews.
First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he ‘‘thought’’ might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson.
Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.
The gloves are finally off! This makes Scooter's prosecution even more partisan looking.
Good Lord, how many versions of this story are there?
This whole episode is starting to look so Rovian.
What I don't understand is Novak who seemed to throw everyone off of the trail of Armitage by assuring us all that his source was "non-partisan and not a gunslinger" and now he seems to be implying that Armitage did disclose in a partisan, gunslinging way! Shouldn't Novak be assigned some of the blame for this misdirection?
And why is Fitzgerald still on the job.
He owes the American taxpayers three years back pay!
armitage is a scumbag of the highest degree........sorry for the foul language, but I cannot think of anything else that describes him, at least not without 4 letter words
Hey Fitz...here's your real perp. Time to make good on your grandstand performance last year on all the news outlets. You said you will get to the bottom of it and you promised the severity of the crime will be punished. Someone has to go to jail.
Come on Fitz...there's no cameras but you are a man of character.
"...and I (Novak?) long had opposed military intervention in Iraq. Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me (Novak?) improbably into the president’s lapdog."
Is Novak against sending forces into Iraq? Then why is he a "lapdog" of Bush?
Novak provides some fascinating new details, at last!
Golly gee, so a leading "inside" opponent (Armitage) of the Iraq War policy, who just happens to be Colin Powell's right-hand man, sets up a very conscious leak of the Valerie Pflame info to Novak, and then both Powell and Armitage sit silently for FIVE months (and then nearly 3 more years) after Novak's July 2003 column..... never telling the Bush WH that they were the source of the leak, while the media clamor grows for a legal jihad against the WH and then Fitz-head is appointed at end of Dec. 2003. Armitage had ample opportunities to straighten out the mess before it got worse, but he and Powell preferred to sit back and watch the heat be turned up on the WH....not merely disloyal but grossly unethical, and in TIME OF WAR, when the WH has countless more important things to do than deal with the aftermath of a STATE DEPARTMENT leak..... and even now, Armitage releases what Novak reports is very deceptive info about the whole sordid affair.
Armitage's Oprah-esque apology-with-tears wipes the slate clean as far as the MSM-DNC are concerned.............
So, what was Armitage's motive for talking to Novak and bringing up Plame?
Novak may have a reputation for not supporting the President and the GOP down the line, but I believe his recounting of the Armitage leak.
He maintained the confidentiality of his source from the public at some expense to his reputation, so his revlations now carry weight.
This'll leave a mark.
This is an example of an issue which takes too long to resolve, is of interest only to the media and political junkies.
The average voter doesn't pay enough attention, to remember who was on first three years ago, who is on first now, etc.
We won, but so what?