Common Knowledge

by digby

Josh Marshall noted this rather direct assertion in the NY Times editorial yesterday and wondered if it was one of those things that editorial writers can put into print that aren’t provable enough to put into the news pages. (I didn’t know there were such things, but there you go.)

Unwilling to accept [DOJ’s refusal to reauthorize the program], Vice President Dick Cheney sent Mr. Gonzales and another official to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital room to get him to approve the wiretapping

Josh wrote:

The folks at TPMmuckraker are the ones really following this story closely. So perhaps this is a detail that has eluded me. But I was not aware that it had ever been established that Vice President Cheney ordered the visit. Speculated, rumored, sure. But I wasn’t aware this had been established at all.

And yet the Times states it rather offhandedly as a fact. So what do they know?

I just happened to catch an excerpt of Larry King’s interview with Big Time tonight, and Larry asked him right out. He said he “couldn’t recall.” Not exactly a resounding denial.

If there are a bunch of DC insiders who know this story and are keeping it to themselves for unknown reasons — kind of like Libby lying his ass off to the Grand Jury — they really need to come forward this time. If Cheney personally sent Gonzales and card to Ashcroft’s bedside, the public has a right to know.

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