Which set of lawyers fed "TO" the information they "RAN ON?"

Was it Rove's, Cheney's or Libby's lawyers...who fed stuff to Leopold and "Truthout" and if they "took the bait" does it mean that they are "HEROES" because they knew they would put PRESSURE on ROVE to divulge more info to keep from being indicted...once again?

Those who've followed this will understand that Fitz might have been getting ready to indict Rove with Libby until Rove divulged all those "e-mails" he'd been saving.

But, now that the Libby case is "ongoing" and we know that Cheney and Rove have "high powered lawyers" along with Libby who has kids and is looking at some "time in the "Federal Spa" then what are we to make of this.

I don't doubt that Leopold had some "buzz and chatter and that David Schuster heard the same and reported it to Matthews who was the only M$M to seem to think...something was coming.

But...in THIS CASE we have HIGH POWERED LAWYERS on Cheney/Rove/Libby's SIDE who have MILLIONS to support their Client.

The Public Relations SPIN must be INCREDIBLE given that amount of money.

So ...TruthOut get's the shaft as a TOOL in this whole process. They became an "outlet." :shrug:

It seem pretty obvious that TO was "rathered" in this episode. Just as James Hatfield and so many others were the victim of gutterball politics. Sow chaos, Rove says. Sow chaos while you perform dirty deeds. They've been trying it on Fitzpatrick, too.

Sow the wind; reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8

There is a shit-storm brewing for Mr. Rove. The Perfect Shit-Storm.

Its hard to trust anything unless its written down on paper by Patrick Fizgerald. It all sounds so plausible. Will we ever know?

Leopold was FED something. I guess he probably was. The story he pulled out of his ass had to come from somewhere.

comes from somewhere

even scoodies
:rofl:

are you ignoring the fact that the story said Rove was indicted and it would be known by wednesday of last week? if fitzgerald was getting ready to indict rove, that's different from actually indicting him as the story claims.

Let's face it, TO isn't that big a blog. Why on earth would Rove focus on it and try to discredit it in this manner? Why not go for a bigger prize, like KOS, which has international recognition?

That aside, there's the mechanics of the story. If TO was "Rathered", by now you would think that they would know about it. They could disown the story, name the sources (as Leopold promised) and make the Rathering the story - it would be a good story.

But they haven't. Instead, they've sort of stuck by the story in a half-hearted manner.

Frankly, I think that Leopold cooked the story. He had some tidbits of gossip from a couple of people, he's an ambitious guy, and the story grew like topsy in his head. Once TO found itself defending this concoction, it couldn't stop - it's awful hard to back down from something like that. So they were backed into this netherworld of "partial apologies" and "clarifications" that simply contradict earlier versions.

We now know that scarcely a detail of the original story was accurate. If it was a set-up, it would at least have been more convincing.

If this were a "Rathergate" operation by BushCo or other GOP operatives, there are certainly larger fish in the liberal blogosphere to hook. I think that KOS and Atrios etc. should reveal whether they were fed this story and declined to run with it. Targeting Truthout with a disinformation campaign hardly seems worth the effort. I do tend to believe that Leopold was prompted by something or someone to gamble on this story. I would advise Leopold that his reputation has taken such a large hit that he might want to consider a complete expose on the origins and timeline of this story. The expose might want to include the outing his sources if he feels they have lied to him. He should tell his sources that unless they can provide convincing evidence that they were merely pawns being duped by someone else, they will be outed. It is his decision and not one to be made lightly. He is in a difficult spot because he is through as a credible journalist until he explains what happened and he can't really explain what happened without revealing his sources which will have ramifications on future sources trusting him enough to talk.

That being said, it is mildly amusing to read the apocalyptic predictions of doom for the liberal blogosphere because a single blogger on a small web site gets a story wrong. It is really a tempest in a teacup. There is a benefit to this event in that ALL bloggers should realize that properly sourcing a story is a vital way to protect their reputation and credibility. Leopold's fate will hopefully be a potent reminder of the importance of professionalism.

I am still a Will Pitt fan and I will wait for a pattern of misjudgements and sloppy journalism by TO editors before I judge them to be without credibility. They do need to come forward at some point and explain this story.

I think it was a fishing expedition, and they caught a used tire.

...O....

This is such a fluid story, we're going to limit personal speculation as well as we can without limiting discussion. There are a couple of active threads that cite some current info, updates. Please see:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1257182&mesg_id=1257182

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1259308&mesg_id=1259308

Thanks.