Why Novak Called Rove: Murray Waas in the National Journal

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1216nj2.htm

From firedoglake:

"Waas provides a piece of the puzzle that had long been lingering out there -- what got Novak and Rove on the phone in the first place. Or at least, what they say got them on the phone.

'Instead, the voluminous material on Rove's desk -- including talking points, related briefing materials, and information culled from confidential government personnel files -- involved a different woman: Frances Fragos Townsend, a former senior attorney in the Clinton administration's Justice Department whom President Bush had recently named to be his deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism.

Bush had personally assigned Rove to help counter what the president believed to be a "rearguard" effort within his own administration, by persons unknown, to discredit Townsend and derail her appointment, according to White House documents and accounts given by former and current officials.'"


http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/

"One interesting aspect to Waas' article that intrigues me is that Libby and Addington and the VPs office (including, presumably, Dick Cheney himself) opposed Francis Townsend with much the same intensity that they did Joe Wilson. Same modus operendi: gather substantial oppo research, including personnel records and any classified materials they could lay their hands on; lay blame on the spouse (in Townsend's case, her husband, because he was an Andover and Yale graduate just liek the Preznit); and use high pressure tactics and selective media leaks to sink her nomination and credibility."