If one of the reporters who was clued in begins to write about it and the administration stonewalls then it’s 50-50 that it sets off a feeding frenzy among the White House Press Corps. And that’s the sort of thing that brings down administrations and cabinet secretaries.
Great fun to watch…less fun to be a part of. I speak as a man who covered politics during impeachment.
Ugh.
Can you cite me some chapter and verse on this, minty? Not challenging you…just want some more material on the topic.
Civilians aren’t supposed to know those things, sure, and the one who told the reporters is the most culpable. But only Robert Novak wrote it, and that’s how the rest of the world found out about Plame’s second job. Why doesn’t Novak have his balls in a vise now, or does he?
According to a Jan 2003 Esquire article, Rove used Novak to sling mud in the '92 Bush presidential campaign. Bush fired him because of it.
I wondered about this, too, but apparently it’s only illegal for a government official to release the identity of an undercover CIA operative, so Novak won’t be arrested (more’s the pity).
That still leaves the question of his journalistic ethics, however. He claims that this information was newsworthy, but given the potential for real harm, both to Wilson’s wife and to anyone who was working with her, that claim rings a bit hollow.
Talking Points Memo has a few examples showing that the right-wing punditry is having trouble coming up with reasonable or consistent spin for this. It mostly consists of more shots at Wilson, which are irrelevant at this point anyway.
One suggests that the leak didn’t matter because everyone knew she was a CIA agent anyway (uh, yeah, OK) while another suggests that Wilson himself is to blame because he should have known they’d do this if he crossed them.
McClellan’s WH press conference this morning was even more studious than usual about managing to say absolutely nothing. I don’t know why they even put him out there, if he’s not really going to answer questions and is going to repeat the same memes over and over; just post a press release and be done with it.
The gist, however, seems to be that Bush and Co. are simply going to pretend this doesn’t exist until the Justice Dept. compels them to look into it. I, for one, believe this calls for an independent counsel. I also don’t know how much more honor and dignity we can stand to have Bush bring to the White House.
Dr. J
The history is very very clear here. If we get the info…we can run it. My brethren did it with the Pentagon papers and will do it again and again.
It seems odd that those in charge of those who’re in charge of investigating are those who’re being investigated.
Great luxury, I’d say.
Wow. Will that ever come back and haunt you the next time you post about Bush and WMDs.
I can think of at least 5 posters here who are sure to bookmark that comment.
BTW, Novak was on the news today saying that all he actually heard was that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA-- as an analyst, not an operative. I think his original piece did use the word “opperative”, but he’s backpeddling now.
May be much ado about nothing.
If that’s luxury, give me a hard-scrabble existence. IMMHO, Ashcroft is in a most unpleasant situation. Does he appoint an independent council, dragging up reminiscence of Kenneth Starr, or does he pursue this directly, with the conflict-of-interest baggage that would certainly follow, or will some Doper come along and point out my excluding some middle that I can’t see. A felony is a felony, and if Ashcroft drags his feet on this, certainly some ax-grinder will come along and make hay out of it(to mix metaphors as if cows were going out of style). Indeed, what is the statute of limitations on this offense? Is it treason?
It’s dastardly, I know that for sure.
From Novak’s article:
I think this terminology, plus the manner in which he was given this nugget of information, makes his backpedaling today pure bullshit.
That’s certainly what the administration wants us to think.
I don’t think that independent counsel is an option anymore. I think that Starr was the last.
I suspect that DCI Tenet has better things to do than get his panties in a very public wad over nothing.
Maybe not though. I don’t know the man. It seems unlikely that he’d’ve sent a letter to the DoJ and allowed the letter to be published in national newspapers if there was nothing going on. At least, that’s how it seems. YMMV.
Posted by Jonathan Chance:
Not so. I’m a lawyer, and I used to be a newspaper reporter. Attorneys, psychiatrists and priests cannot be compelled to testify as to any statement made by a client, patient or penitent in the context of a professional relationship. The relationship between reporter and news source has no such protection. (“Shield laws” are statutes that prevent a newspaper from publishing the name of a rape victim.) There is no legal reason why Robert Novak cannot be compelled to identify his source on the witness stand, if he does take the stand in connection with all this and if the judge decides that information is relevant to the case.
For that matter, even at this late date there is no reason why Woodward and/or Bernstein could not be compelled to identify “Deep Throat” on the witness stand, if the identity of their Watergate source were somehow relevant to a genuine case in controversy.
We should all keep in mind that if Rove, or anybody in the Bush Administration is the source here, and if Bush was in a position to know about it at any time – Nixon went down for much less. The Watergate break-in was a “third-rate burglary” that amounted to, at worst, cheating in the electoral game. Disclosing the identity of a covert CIA agent is close to treason.
Posted by smiling bandit:
Since when? I’ve never tried to do a poll, but it seems to me I see plenty of right-wingers posting on this board. Dopers are practically selected for knowledge of English and access to an Internet-linked computer, and self-selected for a certain degree of interest in intellectual matters. Anyone who has all those characteristics can be found here. There might be an additional selection factor in that many or most Dopers first learned about this board from Cecil’s column, which is published mostly in alternative weekly newspapers in urban areas – but are the readers of such newspapers necessarily leftists or liberals?
If there were a definite leftward (or rightward) slant in the Doper community — that would be a very interesting and important fact, with sociological and political implications. Might make a good thread topic.
Re: my stuff is being bookmarked
It’s great to be revered.
In the meantime, I’m seriously not worried about seeing the obvious here: this leak has Rove’s dirty little fingerprints all over it. As has been pointed out, he was fired by Bush Sr. by using Novak in a very similar manner back in 1992.
Apparently, Rove hasn’t learned much in the intervening decade.
Rove is gonna be seriously hosed over this one, if not by the press or the legal system, then by his own team. I mean, Wislon was MUCH less of a blip on the horizon prior to his wife’s betrayal by Rove (or his minions). Just exactly how much advantage was there to be had in this sleazy act of vengeance, in comparison to the downside whose dimensions are becoming ominously clear? I hope if some of Plame’s contacts are killed or imprisoned as a result of this leak, that names are named so we can all know the price of vengeance.
But if Karl Rove knows who is or is not a CIA operative, someone had to tell him. Knowledge of CIA personnel is not part of his portfolio as Resident Sleazemeister.
The Bushiviks may be perfectly willing to let Rove fall on his sword for this. His chief function is as an advisor, he doesn’t need to be any further than a phone call away. They can dress him up in the Big Encilada suit, toss him overboard. He lands a job working for somebody officially non-political (Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise, etc.) and keeps on keepin’ on. It will be publicly a big hairy ass deal, but in effect, zilch.
Rove may very well have passed the info to Novak. But someone passed it to him, and that person is the source of the leak.
I think it best to chuck 'em all out.
While I strongly support freedom of the press, I have a bit of a problem in this case. The Pentagon Papers were truly newsworthy. The fact that Wilson’s wife is or may be a CIA operative seems less so - how does possession of this information serve the needs of the public? Hypothetically, if Wilson’s wife and/or some of her contacts were killed as a result of this revelation, would you still maintain that Novak was absolutely justified in publishing the information?
The decision to run the story is a moral one, I agree.
But the right (IMH-yet-media-backgrounded-O) to publish is absolute.
** minty and BrainGlutton**,
Thanks for the information regarding the legalities of the situation. Another legal question, if you would be so kind…
If Ashcroft drops the ball on this, what legal recourse does Wilson have in the courts against the “leak”, and possibly Novak. Certainly his wife’s career is now over, and he can easily prove harm. Can a suit from a private citizen subpoena Novak, and possibly Rove, Rice, or any of the other possible sources of the leak (even Bush?)?