HOW LIBBY PLAYED "HARDBALL"-AND LOST (Tweety "drew Libby's ire")

10.28.05

HOW LIBBY PLAYED "HARDBALL" -- AND LOST

Michael Crowley, Franklin Foer, Jason Zengerle, TNR staff

Here's a passage from today's Fitzgerald indictment:
On or about July 10, 2003, LIBBY spoke to NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert to complain about press coverage of LIBBY by an MSNBC reporter. LIBBY did not discuss Wilson's wife with Russert.

Who was the reporter drawing Libby's ire? It was almost certainly Chris Matthews. A Nexis search of Libby's name turns up an episode of "Hardball" from July 8, 2003--just two days before Libby vented to Russert--in which Matthews essentially blamed Libby for the faulty Niger uranium reference in the 2003 State of the Union address (emphasis added):

MATTHEWS: Why would the vice president's office, Scooter Libby or whoever is running that office--why would they send a CIA effort down in Niger to verify something, find out there wasn't a uranium sale, and then not follow-up by putting that information--or correcting that information--in the president's State of the Union? If they went to the trouble to sending Joe Wilson all the way to Africa to find out whether that country had ever sold uranium to Saddam Hussein, why wouldn't they follow-up on that?...

It sounds to me, Congressmen, like a hawk in the vice president's office, probably from Scooter Libby on down, got a hold of somebody like Steve Hadley and the NSC, and they put that in Mike Gerson's speech, and the president went along with it without thinking.....

(snip)


http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=3172

but he is pretty astute in his understanding of how it works.

He does have intimate knowledge of how all the closed door dealings work.

as needed to feed the WH powers as well as split affections of a bipolar partisan audience. No real substantive commentary for 45 seconds can make up for the thousands of uncorrected on-air inaccuracies and lies that he and other so-called journalists allow to slide by like an oiled baseball in a vinyl glove.

but he's still a shill sometimes... okay, oftentimes...

question. Yes, he knows what he is doing---but, IMHO, it wasn't "Scooter on down," it was "Cheney on down."

the Prince of Darkness.

He may be dangerous but not quite as loopy as Reagan, and Libby was Special Assistant to the President. The "Cheney on down" meme insulates a vicious president from even fair and balanced commentary on his possible involvement. He is not a good man.

I'm just waiting for Rove's indictment...

His occasional glimpses into the real world are obscured by the vacuous drivel of propaganda he spews most of the time.

But at least he has his moments, unlike the majority of the SCLM.

I think it is important to remember that Scooter did not want to ever see his name in the news for any reason, particularly for something "negative." One can imagine that Scooter will not want Russert on the witness stand, testifying about this conversation.

Yes, I think Scooty-boot and his Evil Master prefer to grow in the dark--like fungus.

suggested it was Dick Gregory. This sounds right.

Russert is so screwed. He serves as a main catapult-er of the propaganda. Truth is out, propaganda is in.

Cowboy Irving called him to complain about Tweety? I was just trying to picture it...

ups on what Libby said. I've worked for SOBs like that. Quit my job over one tittle-tattler. Cannot stand them.

So if Russert tattled on him, it doesn't seem to have hurt him!

Wow, color me surprised

but did not bother to explain that what Libby was complaining about was coverage of Libby and Wilson and the Niger trip. He made it sound like it was something completely unrelated!

I think the timeline is now clicking into place...

1.) Cheney/Libby put pressure on the CIA to confirm Niger Story.

2.) The honest part of the CIA decides to send Joe Wilson because they know he'll tell the truth.

3.) Bush/Cheney/Libby/Rice decide to ignore Wilson and put the "16 words" in the State of the Union. Investigation begins in Libby's office to see who did send Wilson. The answer comes back - it's their old Nemesis, Brewster-Jennings et al. And they find Wilson's wife Plame works for Brewster-Jennings.

4.) Wilson publishes the column.

5.) Tweety asks: "If they went to the trouble to sending Joe Wilson all the way to Africa to find out whether that country had ever sold uranium to Saddam Hussein, why wouldn't they follow-up on that?"

6.) Libby sees his chance. He can kill Brewster-Jennings by "correcting the record". He'll blame Wilson on Plame and thus out Plame as a CIA Agent and destroy Brewster-Jennings in the process.

why Tweety keeps repeating that Joe Wilson "said that Vice President Cheney sent him to Niger"....

because Tweety got it wrong, repeated it over and over and built one faulty assumption on top of another until he was/is so deep in his own lie that he can't admit it without totally destroying his own credibility.

Tweety isn't part of a neocon plot, he's just an incompetent newsman with the human failing of not wanting to admit that he made a mistake.