Woodward has some explaining to do

November 16, 2005

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward has consistently downplayed the significance of the Plame scandal. He’s said there were “reasonable grounds” for the White House to go after Joseph Wilson; he’s dismissed the Plame leak as “gossip“; and said he had no “bombshell” to share.

As it turns out, however, Woodward had a first-hand view of this story from the very beginning. In fact, it appears he was the very first reporter to receive the leak.

Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.

In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive, according to a statement Woodward released yesterday.

To say this raises more questions than answers is a dramatic understatement. Unfortunately, Woodward is being pretty tight-lipped about the details — as the WaPo noted, Woodward “would not answer any questions, including those not governed by his confidentiality agreement with sources.” How terribly Miller-esque of him.

This is not to say that there’s no news here; there is. Woodward reportedly received the Plame leak before Bob Novak from a still-unnamed White House source, though apparently neither Rove nor Libby told him. Woodward didn’t tell his editors or colleagues, though he claims to have mentioned it to reporter Walter Pincus at the time. Pincus denied this yesterday, saying, “Are you kidding? I certainly would have remembered that.”

So, what does all of this mean? We’ll know more in the coming days, but here are a few points to keep in mind:

* Woodward’s source recently told Patrick Fitzgerald about his or her role in the leak. Why?

* Woodward needs to explain why he’s been discussing — and dismissing — publicly without disclosing to anyone (including his editors) that he knew far more than he was letting on.

* And as Kevin noted, the “Plame investigation is alive and well and continuing to make progress. Fasten your seatbelts.”

Just three short responses to sum up this lastest whore’s exposure:

First: Ethics on sale, now, in Aisle 5!!

Second: IOKIYAR

Third: Lying.Fucking.Bastards.

  • Woodward has been His Master’s Voice for years now. He has become a fat cat, and also the single most boring human being in Washington–which is saying a lot.

    SInce the Washington Star shut down, and especially since Donnie Graham took over, the POST has been steadily becoming more bourgeoise. I ask you, what reader doesn’t know what Krauthammer and George Will will write about the Middle East before they write it? Hell, even the Moonie Washington Times has a better sport section than the POST (where George Solomon only hires his friends). Warren Brown, their automotive editor, is the stylistic equivalent of a Nissan Sentra.

    Bob Woodward is part of the the establishment he purports to observe critically.

  • Access, access. Woodward had been bought, just like Judith Miller was.

    Some “liberal bias” at the POST, huh!

  • Sorry A.L. but I gotta say it too: Lying. Fucking. Bastards.

    Anyone else think Woodward is also trying to dampen this as he might think that he does not want any other political scandal to exceed that of Watergate, his claim to fame?

  • Bubba – I second that. Also, being more sinister, Woodward doesn’t want all info about except for any forthcoming books that he may be already working on. I mean, he is THE STANDARD for all Investigative reporti9ng.

  • Woodwards backgroung outside of Watergate, is not exactly that of someone who is an outsider/crusading member of the 4th estate. He has always been way more connected to the power structure. He has written several books on various administrations. Two on Clinton – The Agenda and The Choice- and others like Veil, The Commanders, Bush at War, Plan of Attack. The Republican ones were gotten inspite of his Watergate background – and not I think just because he was a big-name DC press establishment.

    He is a Navy-connected man (reserve/work) and volunteered for Republican congressman John Erlenborn.

  • Woodward is nothing more than a shill and a whore for the Bush Misadministration who will grovel and lie for access to write shitty books like Bush At War which in retrospect shows him to be the stooge that he is. Whenever he and his old partner appeared together after Deep Throat outed himself earlier this year, it was apparent that Carl Bernstein was the brains and the balls behind the Watergate story.

  • After the whole non-scandal came out about the admin paying talking heads to spout their policies (Armstrong), it would not surprise me to find out that Miller, Woodward, et. al. are also on the payroll.

    Pay for play. It’s what Repugs do best.

  • One thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is that while Woodward may have been told about Plame, he didn’t leak it to the public. If his source wasn’t Rove or Libby but yet another administration operative, revealing it now only bolsters the idea that the White House was engaged in a wide-spread conspiracy to hurt Plame’s husband by making the same leaks to different reporters using different leakers in the hope that eventually somebody would spill the beans. A contest that Robert Novak eventually won, to his eternal shame.

    This whole thing feels like the ‘mystery woman’ at a murder trial who jumps up at the last moment to swear that the defendant is innocent because he was with her all night. Any credibility that Woodward had as a journalist, or even a rational human being, has now been incinerated in my opinion.

    Too bad. Watergate made a heck of a movie……

  • Ever since his first Bush book, Woodward has been praised by the right for being “even-handed.” It was obvious even then that he was wearing kid gloves in order to keep his fingers around the grail of “access.” Being even-handed is a valued skill mostly for those whose profession is giving hand jobs. His pooh-poohing of the importance of Ms. Plame and of any need to keep her CIA service quiet tells me all I need to know.

  • Woodward likes his access does he? Didn’t Woodward a while back float the idea that Dick Cheney could run for President in 2008? Could Cheney–or a close aide to Cheney–be Woodward’s source about Plame?

    P.S. — Months ago before Libby was indicted, I put my money on “Scooter-Boy” here at TCBR in the comments section.

  • This is an excellent and healthy development on several levels. First, this brings back into focus the anonymous sourcing issue, on which there needs to be resolution made. For the final time, press: If they are uncovering a crime, protect them. If they are committing or covering one up, expose them. It’s that simple, and it’s your job.
    Next, this is helping Fitzmas at least rival if not surpass Ramadan as the longest holiday (Timewise for celebrations, that is). Fitzmas will be continuing for the forseeable future.
    Third, this may finally break Woodward’s magical stand. His one true source- Deep Throat- is out in the open now. He has become a political hack. It’s time to retire. He is not the authoritative view anymore, hasn’t been for a while (the parts I read of Bush at War were almost disgustly hero-worshipping from my view), and it’s beyond time that he was removed from his pedestal. Keeping him there past his prime was a disservice to the press in general.

  • Hey CB,

    What’s with all the chatter about a Bush crack-up???…Kevin Drum had a post on “President’s Acting Badly” today…what’s the dirt here??

    This is my conspiracy theory (concocted after a session on the Exercycle…lol): Wonder if Cheney is behind some of this: he’s probably genuinely concerned about a Bush meltdown in public. And maybe he doesn’t have assurances on pardons yet from Bush.

    Wonder if the news on Cheney’s meetings with the oil execs is pushback from Dubya’s people.

    Wonder if Bush 41 – and I know reports say that 43 is not talking to 41 but I’m sure Barb can set up a telcon – will spell it out to Dubya that he’s now in danger of losing his job if he doesn’t bring in the 41 crowd to try to restore order.

    Bottom line: this is a criminal enterprise at this point…they all have something on each other. But, if push comes to shove, Dubya’s people may be in a better position to feed incriminating info to Fitzgerald and hang on to his presidency than Cheney is at this point to sell a Bush crack up (even if Bush is drinking and cracking up) to the Cabinet and Congress. Who could do the heavy lifting to contain Cheney at this point???…probably only Bush 41 with his CIA connections. (Bush 41 may genuinely regard his son as a total washup, but there are dynastic considerations in the equation here, and he probably would work to insure that Dubya survives.)

    This all reminds me of Nixon in the summer of ’74…the reports of ill health, the trips abroad…I’m thinking events in the Dubya presidency may move with shocking rapidity. Everyone is asking how can this go on for three more years???…the simple answer may be that it won’t.

  • It does make one wonder if this is nothing but after-the-fact fabrication to help Scooter Libby out of a jam. Seems kind of strange that Woodward would have kept this under his hat for this long.

    Something smells a bit rotten…

  • There is irony in the fact that Woodward inadvertently outed his WHouse pals when he quoted Rummy’s plan after 911:

    “Go massive, Clean it all up–things related and not.”

    Related (Afghanistan) and NOT (Iraq).
    And clean it ain’t.

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