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The Real Story Behind Armitage's Role(Bob Novak)
Real Clear Politics ^ | September 14, 2006 | Robert Novak

Posted on 09/14/2006 4:35:19 AM PDT by kellynla

WASHINGTON -- When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, the former deputy secretary of state's interviews obscured what he really did. I want to set the record straight based on firsthand knowledge.

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.

An accurate depiction of what Armitage actually said deepens the irony of him being my source. He was a foremost internal skeptic of the administration's war policy, and I long had opposed military intervention in Iraq. Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me improbably into the president's lapdog. But they cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson. The news that he and not Karl Rove was the leaker was devastating news for the Left.

A peculiar convergence had joined Armitage and me on the same historical path. During his quarter of a century in Washington, I had no contact with Armitage before our fateful interview. I tried to see him in the first two and one-half years of the Bush administration, but he rebuffed me -- summarily and with disdain, I thought.

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


TOPICS: Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: armitage; bobnovak; libby; plame; robertnovak; rove; wilson
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And Fitzgerald owes the American taxpayers three years back pay.
1 posted on 09/14/2006 4:35:20 AM PDT by kellynla
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To: kellynla

I couldn't agree more; Fitzy, the prosecutor's prosecutor, should have to repay all of his fees


2 posted on 09/14/2006 4:37:15 AM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
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To: kellynla

Fitzy was stringing this thing out hoping to nail someone in the Bush administration. These liberal arses have no sense of integrity. Witness what these partisan hacks tried doing to Rush and DeLay. There is no place in the justice system for these types.


3 posted on 09/14/2006 4:44:01 AM PDT by rj45mis
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To: kellynla
And the respose from the White House has been.....(silence)
4 posted on 09/14/2006 4:45:29 AM PDT by airborne (Fecal matter is en route to fan! Contact is imminent!)
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To: airborne

If there is anything I admire about this White House, it is their patience. There will be time to speak, its just not time yet. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is a parallel investigatiaon ongoing, regarding the ROckky memo, and the real truth about the collusion between the DNC/MSM/DOJ/DOS players in all of this. When asked recently about this whole investigation now that Armitage has been outed, Tony's response was: My lips are sealed. Patience.


5 posted on 09/14/2006 4:48:27 AM PDT by Laverne
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To: Laverne

I used to have patience.8^)


6 posted on 09/14/2006 4:52:08 AM PDT by airborne (Fecal matter is en route to fan! Contact is imminent!)
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To: Laverne

Disagree...This was the major plank in the left's herculean effort to undermine the war. There are real world consequences to this sillyness, as it makes every minute more dangerous for the troops over in Iraq. If the CiC is going to send troops into harms way he better have the balls to defend them. They've failed miserably in this regard.

They could have squashed this easily in the beginning by just telling the American people the truth. Now history will have to be rewritten. A miserable political performance.


7 posted on 09/14/2006 5:07:57 AM PDT by Wristpin ("The Yankees announce plan to buy every player in Baseball....")
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To: kellynla
Shoot! He still didn't say who the guy that approached him on the street was. Perhaps someday.
8 posted on 09/14/2006 5:08:39 AM PDT by philman_36
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To: kellynla
People are puzzled by Armitage's motives, but they seem clear enough to me.

I'm assuming, for the sake of argument, that Armitage is a serious minded person with what he considers principled reasons for opposing the War in Iraq. Given that he is trying to build a reasoned argument for opposition to the war, having Joe Wilson running around spouting outrageous and easily disproved lies in a New York Times Op/Ed is counterproductive. It allows supporters of the war to refute Wilson's straw man, instead of dealing with what Armitage would consider to be much more serious arguments, which is to say, Armitage's own arguments.

So it is in Armitage's interest to have Joe Wilson exposed and dismissed as a partisan hack as quickly as possible. The very best way to do that is to reveal that the entire mission was a put-up job from the very beginning, which is what Armitage did.

Unfortunately for Armitage (but fortunately for the rest of us!), things didn't work out like they were supposed to. The Looney Left siezed upon the supposed "outing" of Plame as the real story, and consequently gave Wilson's obviously fraudulent argument much more attention than it deserved. They would up completely ignoring Armitage, and whatever arguments he may have had.

You can be quite certain that it stuck in Armitage's craw that the rantings and ravings of a lesser man became the center of attention and Joe Wilson became the media's flavor-of-the-month. That sort of thing should be reserved for a man who is our better, and Richard Armitage surely considers himself to be our better.

9 posted on 09/14/2006 5:15:25 AM PDT by gridlock (The 'Pubbies will pick up at least TWO seats in the Senate and FOUR seats in the House in 2006)
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To: Wristpin
They could have squashed this easily in the beginning by just telling the American people the truth. Now history will have to be rewritten. A miserable political performance.

I disagree. I, rather, see it as a cunning and masterfully implemented strategery.

The Loony Left was going to be ranting and raving about something. The only way they were going to get back into power was by being opposed to the War, and we all know that getting back into power is more important than anything else to these people. So it was a given that there was going to be investigations, recriminations and fulminations coming from the Left.

So would you rather have them investigating, recriminating and fulminating over an non-existant crime that nobody cares about, or about something substantive. All of this Valerie Plame stuff is Inside Baseball. 99% of the country could not care less, unless somebody is indicted and winds up going to jail. That was simply never going to happen, because there was no underlying crime.

So the Looney Left has been left spinning their wheels over nothing for the last three years, while the President has gotten on with business. I don't know about you, but to these wizened old eyes, that looks live victory!

10 posted on 09/14/2006 5:22:24 AM PDT by gridlock (The 'Pubbies will pick up at least TWO seats in the Senate and FOUR seats in the House in 2006)
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To: Wristpin
"[The Administration] could have squashed this easily in the beginning by just telling the American people the truth."

It is entirely likely that the Bush inner circle did not know the truth. Armitage is said to have only told Powell and Justice Department. The Justice Department intentionally held the information so as not to give the appearance of the administration unduly influencing the investigation. Powell also did not tell. That means it is entirely possible that no one in the Bush Administration knew for a fact that Armitage was the leaker. For them to pursue the rumor that it was Armitage would have been seen by the DBM as attempts to taint the investigation.

11 posted on 09/14/2006 5:31:00 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage
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To: gridlock

Tell it to Scooter Libby.


12 posted on 09/14/2006 5:31:10 AM PDT by Graymatter (TV-free and clean for 3 years, 2 months.)
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To: Graymatter
Tell it to Scooter Libby.

Scooter is going to come out of this just fine.

13 posted on 09/14/2006 5:34:47 AM PDT by gridlock (The 'Pubbies will pick up at least TWO seats in the Senate and FOUR seats in the House in 2006)
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To: Graymatter

Scooter toasted his own butt. If he had said "I do not recall" several times, he would not have been in trouble.


14 posted on 09/14/2006 5:34:58 AM PDT by sausageseller (Look out for the jackbooted spelling police. There! Everywhere!(revised cause the "man" accosted me!)
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To: sausageseller

I would just like to know why Russerts assertions are believed by Fritz instead of Scooters.


15 posted on 09/14/2006 5:36:14 AM PDT by mware (Americans in armchairs doing the job of the media.)
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To: gridlock

I guess it depends on how many manyears your family has expended on the ground in Iraq. I'm not willing to accept higher casualties as part of a grand Rovian rope a dope plan.

What business has been accomplished since he lost his political capital?

Energy policy?

SS Reform?

Immigration?

Leading an informing the American people that we are really at war?

Convincing the American people that terrorism is a military and not a law enforcement issue?

Arresting and prosecuting leakers who release Top Secret SCI information to newspapers?

Allowing civil servants to engage in juntas against a duly elected government?

Clawing his way out of approval numbers in the 30's?

You see victories, I see weakness. Hey, but I'm still a fan.


16 posted on 09/14/2006 5:38:16 AM PDT by Wristpin ("The Yankees announce plan to buy every player in Baseball....")
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To: gridlock
Are you seriously proposing that Armitage is a good guy in all of this process?
Do you think this has actually been good for the country and the administration?
Do you not see this more as an attempt to undermine the Bush administration?

I'm trying to give you posts serious attention but I'm runnin into some real roadblocks in logic.

17 posted on 09/14/2006 5:40:23 AM PDT by evad (sarcasm may be introduced at any moment of any post)
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To: All

Come on FReepers, Fitzgerald could have closed this "investigation" within 24 hours.
He wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and three years "investigating" what he found out the first day on the job. First, Valerie Plame was NOT A COVERT CIA AGENT; heck, she hadn't even been overseas in SIX YEARS!
Plame was nothing more than a CIA desk jockey.
And second, Armitage was the "leaker."


18 posted on 09/14/2006 5:46:21 AM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: mware
Russert was not even under oath when Fitzgerald "interviewed" him on the phone. Libby was under oath when he testified that he had spoken w/Russert. Fitzgerald believed Russert. What a special counselor! /s
19 posted on 09/14/2006 5:49:57 AM PDT by Carolinamom (This is no time to go wobbly. - Lady Margaret Thatcher)
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To: evad
Are you seriously proposing that Armitage is a good guy in all of this process?

I am saying nothing of the sort. I am sure Armitage considers himself to be a good guy, but I wouldn't say he is. I will say that it would probably cause much more problems for the conduct of the War if people listened seriously to Armitage than to the rantings and ravings of Joe Wilson.

Do you think this has actually been good for the country and the administration?

By "this", I assume you mean the Valerie Plame flap. It is not a question of this flap being good, but of damage control. The Left was going to be doing their level best to damage the administration, so it is least harmful to have them attacking the administration over a non-existant crime. The Valerie Plame flap is a tempest in a teapot, and the Left has expended tremendous amounts of energy and attention on it, thus distracting themselves from other things. Furthermore, at the end of the day, the President has the opportunity to reveal that Joe Wilson, Hero of the Left, is a partisan hack and a liar.

Do you not see this more as an attempt to undermine the Bush administration?

I think the furor over the Valerie Plame flap was definitely an attempt to undermine the Bush Administration. I also think that it was ultimately ineffective. Our enemies are always going to try to hurt us. All we can hope for is that their efforts will be ineffective.

I'm trying to give you posts serious attention but I'm runnin into some real roadblocks in logic.

Talking about stragegery is like that. I hope I have cleared some things up for you.

To put it another way, there are two ways to score points in the political arena. The first is to take partisan cheap-shots and score points for the day. The second is to do the hard work on long-term efforts to discredit your opposition and win the battle. I would submit that the Democrat Party tends toward the former and this particular Administration tends toward the latter.

Given that the White House knows the Democrats are going to be taking cheap shots at them on a daily basis, it behooves them to give the opposition a nice tempting target off to the side to shoot at. At the end of the day, the full weight of this thing is going to fall on Richard Armitage and Scooter Libby, which is unfortunate for Armitage and Libby, but of no great consequence to the Nation.

If there was no big tempting target for the Democrats to snipe at, there is a danger that they might actually get 'round to doing something substantive that could damage the Administration and the war effort. But instead, they have completely expended themselves on nothing.

To put it yet another way, the great failing of the Democrats is that they feel the need to win every single point. They can't stand to be seen as wrong on anything, so they will chase their tails over nothing almost indefinitely, as long as they can prove themselves "right" in the end. The President uses this tendency against them in a deft act of political ju-jitsu, and in the end winds us sacrificing a pawn, if anything at all.

20 posted on 09/14/2006 5:59:46 AM PDT by gridlock (The 'Pubbies will pick up at least TWO seats in the Senate and FOUR seats in the House in 2006)
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