Free Republic

Here's an interesting scene from Bob Woodward's new book. It's the summer of 2004 and George Tenet has resigned as CIA chief: [White House chief of staff] Andy Card called [Deputy Secretary of State Richard] Armitage to see if he was interested in taking over the CIA. No, Armitage replied emphatically. "Can I ask the reason? We're disappointed." Armitage replied that he could give the reason but he would prefer not to because it might hurt Cards feelings. Card knew the problem for Armitage was Cheney and Rumsfeld. He nonetheless asked Powell if there was a way to persuade Armitage....

It’s a shame David Corn chose to show his displeasure with my September 15, 2006, Wall Street Journal op-ed about Richard Armitage’s role in the Valerie Plame so-called leak by making a baseless personal attack against me. I wrote: “The first journalist to reveal Ms. Plame was ‘covert’ was David Corn on July 16, 2003, two days after Mr. Novak’s column. The latter [Robert Novak] never wrote, because he did not know and it was not so, that Ms. Plame was covert. However, Mr. Corn claimed Mr. Novak ‘outed’ her as an ‘undercover CIA officer,’ querying whether Bush officials blew...