I hope I’m not the only one who can relate to this

October 20, 2005

William Rivers Pitt wrote a very funny item for Truthout that I could really relate to. I hope I’m not the only one.

8:12 am – Wake, sling blankets aside, startling cat into sudden flight.

8:13 am – Pull up New York Times web site, scan for news of Fitzgerald indictment.

8:14 am – Thump head repeatedly on desk, further confusing already-rattled cat.

8:17 am – Make coffee, check CNN in case something was missed in walk from office to kitchen.

8:22 am – Down coffee in single gulp, remember that the voices of CNN talking heads are like fingernails across the chalkboard of my soul, change channel.

10:23 am – Hit refresh on Times web site. Sigh.

Pitt describes the rest of the day — it’s called “Diary of a Plamegate Junkie” — which follows along this tack. Other than waking up way earlier that Pitt, I found myself nodding most of the way through.

And speaking of Plame, here’s a handful of items from the past few hours:

* The Today Show reported that Rove told Libby that he learned about Plame from columnist Bob Novak, while Libby learned about her from Tim Russert. Neither claim makes a lot of sense.

* Pat Buchanan, while discounting much of the scandal, believes “there are multiple indictments coming, for lying to investigators, perjury, obstruction of justice, and disclosure of national security secrets for political purposes. And maybe conspiracy.”

* National Journal’s Chuck Todd said the leaks to the AP and the WaPo last night about Rove pointing the finger at Libby almost certainly had to come directly from Rove.

* Judd at Think Progress noticed that all the leaking from the White House would appear to conflict with the official Bush gang line, that they’re not going to comment while the investigation is ongoing.

* Buzz Flash has a copy of an email that’s making the rounds on Capitol Hill today, which includes all kinds of speculation and rumors. (For the record, I’m not inclined to believe this email, but it’s being widely distributed so I thought readers might want to be aware of it)

* Josh has a good post explaining that yesterday’s New York Daily News scoop about Bush being mad at Rove two years ago being a leak intended to made Bush look better, once again proving that top presidential aides aren’t very smart.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go hit “refresh” on a bunch of websites.

Very refreshing to get the updates in one tidy bundle.

I’ve been trying to think of a good epithet to throw at Republicans, one that hangs BushCo around their necks, one that’s already a common derogatory expression.

One has risen to the top of the list, I’m sure someone has already beat me to it…

“I’m tired of Bush Leaguers running the country”

  • I don’t see what’s so confusing about the Rove-Novak/Libby-Russert issue. If this is true, then it just means that Rove told Russert and Libby told Novak, with both Rove and Libby telling the reporters that nobody else knew. So then Novak could tell Rove and Russert could tell Libby and it looks like it came from the reporters.

    In fact, if you properly decipher Rove’s “yeah, I’ve heard something like that” comment to Cooper (not an exact quote), then you can just hear the humor dripping from his voice; because he knew that he was responsible for Cooper having heard of it in the first place. That’s just how these guys roll.

    Not that it’s the exact same situation, but I believe that Nixon used these kinds of tactics. He’d pretend to not know things that he already knew, so he could ask staffers and congressmen and use that to pretend that this was the first he had heard about it. And so if the second person talked to the press or testified, they’d testify that this was the first Nixon had known about it. And all he had to do was keep straight which people he had told what. I believe John Dean had mentioned this kind of thing, and is one of the things that made Dean nervious. He had felt like Nixon was setting him up, by pretending to not know things that Dean had already told him.

  • Thank god for CNN Europe. I haven’t been back to the US in a year but I remember watching CNN while there and it was such a disgusting, unprofessional affair that I couldn’t watch. My wife commented, “That’s what you call news in the US?” Amen.

  • I admit I’m a Plamegate junkie, and check the news often. I fervently hope Fitzgerald indicts the whole sorry lot.

    One thing concerns me, however. If Fitzgerald fails to indict and issues no report, I fear the story could produce the same result as the Dan Rather Texas Air Guard forgeries. Before the “60 Minutes” disaster, the Bush draft dodger/desertion story was alive and had been living for years. Once the Rather episode ended, so did the story. In the media’s mind, if not the public’s, the forgeries were proof, somehow, that Bush’s NG record was clean. There was plenty of evidence that our wartime president shirked his duty, but the pursuit of the truth stopped cold.

    The same thing could happen with Plamegate.

  • Please excuse a quick follow-up to my previous post.

    I should have added that failing to nail Rove, et al, for outing Plame — like not nailing Bush for his NG shirking — is not the greatest tragedy. Not getting to the roots of the fraudulent and disasterous Iraq invasion would be the tragedy. The Plamegate smear is part of that story.

  • CB – no, you’re not the only one. (Short pause whilst I refresh the separate tabbed window). Yet – even though it will cause us great frustration, lets hope any (if there are so) indictments wait until Monday. If announced tomorrow, possibly the announcements will be buried with rest of “friday’s trash”.

  • From the Buzzflash email:

    during the meeting, powell recounted to the senator that he had traveled on air force one with bush and cheney

    Isn’t it SOP for the President and the Vice President to always travel separately, just in case… ? or is that an urban myth?

  • For real Plamegate Junkies, the must read stuff is over at firedoglake. It’s all Plame, all the time — Your 24-hour source for all things Plamegate! Great stuff.

    BTW, the Buzzflash memo IS a hoax, and has been debunked a number of places. For starters, Pres & veep never fly together on AF1. But it was a fun read!

  • possibly the announcements will be buried with rest of “friday’s trash”.

    I find that highly, highly unlikely.

  • Okay, junkies, here’s a question I’ve had
    for a while:

    Is Fitzgerald’s investigation limited in
    scope to the Plame case, or can he
    extend the original probe to wherever
    it leads him?

    Obviously, Plamegate is a minor part
    of the real crime: the conspiracy to attack
    Iraq through a series of fraudulent claims
    intended to deceive the Congress, the
    American people, the United Nations
    and the international community.

  • hark, I don’t think you can limit a criminal investigation. The facts lead where they lead. If Fitzgerald were to uncover a drug ring or murder, he couldn’t be limited in scope.

    And thank you CB and Mr. Rivers Pitt; I couldn’t figure out why I was checking news and blogs before I was even fully awake. And by the way carptebagger, I live in the Pac Time Zone and your first post wasn’t up til after 8am this morning! Even Atrios was late this today. I had to turn on the news to make sure the east coast wasn’t hit by a big ol’ meteor or something.

  • Fitzgerald is not limited in any way by anything at all. He is functioning like an Attorney General and can go anywhere he wishes with his investigation. Strongly believe he is looking carefully at WHIG, Cheney’s anti-CIA show involving Condi, Hadley, Matalin,Hannah et al, where many lies originated and where intelligence was twisted and ignored to justify the rush to war. Fitzgerald is a bulldog prosecutor who is all law and order all the time and he will go wherever he needs to, wherever the evidence takes him to bring the case to justice. Bolton is implicated, Hannah, Hernandez likely bargaining now. Very, very smart guy and likely many steps ahead of the WH clowns. Have faith.

  • zennurse:

    I have faith. Partly because of the well-worn but correct adage: “A grand jury can indict a ham sandwich.”

    Pass the mustard.

  • I’ve got my own verison of this…

    5:50 am: – wake up.

    Even hours – Have high hopes for indictments – feelin’ good.

    Odd hours – wailing & gnashing of teeth, I’m fooling myself hoping justice will be served – they’re going to get away with this…how could I be so niaeve…it’s just going to be like Iran-Contra all over again, except no body’s getting convicted of anything. When do the people get their country back???11!

    8:00 pm – drink self to sleep.

  • And Alibubba…

    Remember it’s a grand jury from Washington, DC (an overwhelmingly Democratic town)…also I seem to remember Bush has a 2% approval rating among African Americans…lol.

  • Another European defector here, with no TV though. I come to work at 5pm GMT+1, hoping, hoping, hoping that this story will finally come to some sort of a close or at least to a different step and I can stop following it, and for that matter, after they’re all in jail, I can maybe stop worrying about my country going to hell.

    Compound that with the fact that I know about 2 Americans so I have no one to really talk these things out with. It’s like some secret obsession that no one who knows me knows anything about. Please let it end!!

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