Lying Accomplices
Kevin makes note of the eery sameness of Novak and Miller’s contention that Plame was idly brought up in unrelated casual conversation and asks that these assholes (my paraphrase) stop insulting our intelligence with this nonsense. He points out that someone within the White House spilled those beans long ago when he or she told the Washington Post:
A senior administration official said two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife…”Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge,” the senior official said of the alleged leak.
It’s clear to me that it was meant to discredit Wilson, but even if you take away that explanation, the mere fact that six different reporters (at a minimum) were “casually” told in “idle converstaion” ought to be enough for Judy to have gotten a fucking clue by now.
And let’s not forget that Novak sang a different tune when he was first questioned about this:
“Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information,” New York Newsday reporters Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce wrote. They quoted Novak saying: “I didn’t dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.”
That doesn’t sound like idle water cooler talk to me.
Kevin concludes with this:
I have no doubt that these officials did their best to make their disclosures sound casual. Miller and Novak either fell for it, or else were willing accomplices. Neither option speaks well for their ability to do their job.
Considering the histories of both of these “journalists” I would have to say that they are lying accomplices. These are two reporters with many decades of national security reporting between them. They knew exactly what they were hearing.
The question still remains as to what Miller was doing. She claims that she wasn’t writing an article because she had pitched the idea to “an editor” and was turned down. The editor to whom she supposedly reported says that no such conversation occurred. Yet, Judy was making agreements with Libby that she would refer to him as a “hill staffer” because she “assumed Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson.” Seen by whom? If she wasn’t writing a story, if this was casual conversation, why would Libby be concerned about how she would portray him. Why wouldn’t the conversation just be on backround and leave it at that?
Mr. Fitzgerald asked whether I ever pursued an article about Mr. Wilson and his wife. I told him I had not, though I considered her connection to the C.I.A. potentially newsworthy. I testified that I recalled recommending to editors that we pursue a story.
Mr. Fitzgerald asked my reaction to Mr. Novak’s column. I told the grand jury I was annoyed at having been beaten on a story. I said I felt that since The Times had run Mr. Wilson’s original essay, it had an obligation to explore any allegation that undercut his credibility. At the same time, I added, I also believed that the newspaper needed to pursue the possibility that the White House was unfairly attacking a critic of the administration.
It is quite clear that she was writing a story and that she was writing the story that Novak actually published — outing Valerie Plame. She admits that she was annoyed that she was “beaten” to it. Indeed, she felt the Times had an obligation to explore allegations that undercut Wilson’s credibility.
And there is not one piece of evidence that she was concerned in the least that the White House was unfairly attcking a critic of the White House. All during the period when she and Libby were buttering each other’s toast at the St Regis (thank you James Wolcott) and chatting on the phone and agreeing that she would refer to him as an ex hill staffer, Judy never once called Joe Wilson to get his side of the story.
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