Via Sullivan:
The rumors are now swirling. Who has really been cooperating with Fitzgerald? The new buzz is that it could be … Colin Powell. Who ends up at the center of the Plame outing? The odds may be narrowing on Cheney. If that pans out, we could be about to hit Plamegate pay-dirt; and the Bush administration could be headed into a political Katrina.
That would kill off our guessing during the past summer’s consensus project that Colin Powell was the ‘not a partisan gunslinger’ source. Or would it?
As a side note, it is amusing that Sullivan would refer to this as a political Katrina. Does that mean, like Hurricane Katrina, we can expect Andrew to not get one fucking thing right? Because his batting average was about 0 for Katrina as far as accuracy went during that event.
Dan Spartan
A bit testy, aren’t we John? :)
BTW, see what you can do to get the Steelers to start Tommy Maddox against my Bengals this weekend. lol
kemk
David Wurmser…
Gratefulcub
I didn’t want to get too excited about the possibility of indictments. I don’t mean Cheney or Bush, or someone being charged with the Espionage Act, or something extremely serious. I didn’t want to get too fired up about at least one person being indicted for perjury or obstruction.
But, I took a trip through the spooky world of the right. Powerline, Malkin, Little Green Footballs, etc. What I learned was: spain hates american soldiers. Didn’t care. I was looking for Plamegate defenses. Nothing. Well, Powerline took down EJ Dionne. But I am seeing no defenses, no excuses, no explanations. (Maybe Fitgerald asked them not to discuss an ongoing investigation, and that’s what they are going to do, not discuss the investigation) I am sure they are out there, I could only peruse for so long. But they aren’t really fighting. The same people that will still tell you that Iraq had WMD, a nuclear program, and ties to 9/11, aren’t making a peep.
I’m sold. I am picking up Champagne (not sparkling white, CHAMPAGNE, just because it is French and O’Reilly is an ass). Something is coming, it may not be huge, but it’s something. Something big enough to draw the story out into the media, and that is enough. WHIG, forged Niger documents, mushroom clouds, aipac, all of it and much much more needs to be discussed out in the open. If it is nothing but conspiracy theorist mumbojumbo, fine. As long as we get our public hearing.
Gratefulcub
Those are my Bengals too. But I am not saying a GD word. I ranted and raved last week about the 55 points Louisville was going to score in WV. The 55-17 final. So no ‘Who Dey’ from me, my mouth is shut……till monday.
over it
Honestly…at this point….I do not care who did it/was involved in it. I just want them to be called out and ‘punished’ appropriately. Bottom line….what was done was wrong..whatever the reasons behind it.
So, yeah…that about sums up my thoughts on the whole thing.
yet another jeff
It means that the leaking of information will cause a major flood?
Either that or they’ll have to eat Rove to survive. Mmmm, Rove…
Vladi G
C’mon Gratefulclub, they’re not talking about it because everyone knows what really happened. Wilson leaked his wife’s covert status to Hillary who told Judy Miller, who told Novak. Judy was just covering for the Wilsons the whole time. Don’t you know anything?
Andrei
Because you somehow did?
John Cole
I will defend my track record against you and Sullivan combined.
Hey- why don’t you tell me how the Bush budget cuts caused the levees to fail again. We can get Red Dan and Joe Albanese here to have you guys throw out all the same stupid arguments again. Of course, they are still just as wrong as they were then, but you believe them- so that is all that really matters.
John Cole
IF they start Maddox over Batch, should Ben not play, I will be rooting for the Bengals.
feral1
My guess is that when this all shakes out we will find that Powell was a significant source of info for Fitzgerald. He had his legs cut out from under him by the Cheney cabal and this is his payback.
Paul L.
Here you go one Plamegate defense coming up:
Someone Give Bill Kristol a Pill
The White House, the CIA, and the Wilsons
Dan Spartan
John, I think you are safe because I saw last night on the ESPN ticker that Big Ben would start….but maybe, just maybe, I can bribe Cowher to play Maddox. Should be a good game and about time the Bengals played a meaningful division game again.
slide
Cole:
and you would lose.
Lets all remember, Cole was the genius that said that federal government’s respnose to Katrina was as good as can be expected under the circumstances. Yeah, John quite a record to defend.
but, I think John knows this. Got to get his “hits” up a bit after his week of football posting (yawn) during one of the most newsworthy periods we have had in quite a while. How did fuckin WVU do again? so the Colester wants to start a flame war and what better way than back to back posts on Cindy Sheehan and Katrina with a little attack on Sullivan thrown in. John, you are becoming as predictable as my morning shits.
James C.
Michael Wolff, columnist for Vanity Fair has written of Andrew Sullivan on a couple occasions, as for example when he was describing Sullivan’s tenure as editor of The New Republic magazine: “…he is a ghastly manager — the magazine is riven by internecine warfare….[and]…he is forced out of the New Republic job in 1996…” Martin Peretz, principal owner of the magazine at the time has characterized Sullivan as “…incapable of managing a one-employee candy store.” His blog writing has often displayed how at sea he often is without the benefit of a strong editor looking over his shoulder; he seldom corrects his most egregious errors/falsehoods, and when he does, he does so in a manner that even Paul Krugman would admire for its obfuscating quality.
Gratefulcub
Weekly Standard – Hayes
He atleast got that right.
feral1
The rumor mill is going into overdrive.
From The Agonist-
Wall Street’s Take On Plame
Sean-Paul Kelley | San Antonio | October 19
The Agonist – Wall Street, as you all probably know, is a rumor mill’s rumor mill, especially the traders and the guys and gals that work with them and deal with them on a sometimes minute to minute basis. Although I don’t work on Wall Street, my work revolves around it. It is the essence of what I do.
That being said I want to share something interesting with you. I recieved an email that reportedly came from Wall Street And it is something that seems to have been making the rounds today. I post this email with a few big caveats, ok, so listen up.
I don’t know who wrote it and frankly I don’t care. What I find most interesting is the level of specificity with which this denizen of Wall Street is speculating. Keep this in mind when you read it, after all, if Washington, DC is the brain of our capitalistic society, Wall Street is the heart.
Also, I want to state that while I think the email is probably incorrect in most, if not all the particulars, it is imminently ‘plausible.’ Now, there is a big difference between plausible and true. Plausible means to me, that in the real world it could happen. Finally, the person who forwarded me the email is well connected and someone I trust, which adds another level to this. But again, I’m posting this email not for what it says, but for how it says it and for what it says about Wall Street’s view of the seriousness of this affair. Below you will find the text.
– Add to hotlist
By Sean Paul in USA: Intel and Policy on Wed Oct 19th, 2005 at 01:14:19 PM PDT
Begins:
Below, some extremely sensitive information about the impending conclusion of the valerie plame investigations. The sources include two senior members of senate and key staffers; counsel for individuals that have been called before the grand jury; and two journalists taking a lead position in investigating the case. the following represents a composite of the information from those sources.
Plamegate coming to conclusion. The investigation has focused mostly closely on vice president cheney and his staff, as well as us ambassador to the un (and former undersecretary of state for arms control) john bolton and his staff. We are told that eight indictments have already prepared, with the possibility of another ten. These indictments include senior white house staff, most notably vice president cheney’s chief of staff scooter libby, fred fleitz (special assistant to john bolton), and–very surprisingly–national security adviser steve hadley. Apparently, libby and hadley have both been told by their lawyers to expect indictments. The indictment of senior bush political advisor karl rove seems highly probable.
Most critically, a plea bargain process has evidently been opened with vice president cheney’s lawyer. That does not mean that an indictment is coming. But i’ve some critical background around the issue.
In the past several days, former secretary of state Colin Powell had a meeting with senator John McCain (R-AZ), primarily about the McCain-sponsored amendment on inserting a rider prohibiting torture onto the us defense budget (a bill which Powell has himself been lobbying heavily for, against objections of President Bush).
during the meeting, Powell recounted to the senator that he had traveled on air force one with Bush and Cheney, and brought to their attention a classified memorandum about the issue of whether there was indeed a transaction inolving Niger and yellow cake uranium. the document included Ambassador Joe Wilson’s involvement and identified his wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert agent. The memorandum further stated that this information was secret. Powell told McCain that he showed that memo only to two people–president and vice president. according to Powell, Cheney fixated on the Wilson/Plame connection, and Plame’s status.
Powell testified about this exchange in great length to the grand jury investigating the Plame case. according to sources close to the case, Powell appeared convinced that the vice president played a focal role in disclosing plame’s undercover status.
In his conversation with McCain, Powell felt that–at a minimum–there would be a serious shakeup at national security council as a consequence. In particular, vice president Cheney would no longer hold a pivotal role in us national security affairs. Powell apparently did not discuss the potential of a Cheney resignation.
Lead prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has apparently been looking at the precedent of formerly indicted Nixon vice president Spiro Agnew. This shows the likely path, because addressing executive immunity and privilege questions would necessarily begin start with a plea-bargain deal that would entail a resignation.
This is all likely to occur within the next week. 28 october (next friday) is the last day of the grand jury, and no requests have been made to extend their session. The investigator is expecting to wrap up by then.
There are enormous implication for what would be the biggest white house shakeup since the Iran-Contra scandal in the Reagan era. president Bush’s approval rating at 39% has already led to a significant decrease in policy efficacy with key legislators in congress (which I’ve already discussed at length elsewhere). I’ll spin out the broader policy implications when I have some time to write at greater length, but I wanted to get this out immediately.
One interesting point though–it is worth noting that a parade of senior republican senators have evidently been privately pushing McCain to lobby to be Cheney’s replacement. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has also been mentioned. Meanwhile, the White House has already been developing countermeasures–notably including senior White House officials privately voicing president Bush’s disappointment in Karl Rove’s involvement in the case, calling it “misconduct.” An urgent search for a Rove replacement is already underway.
Ends
http://www.agonist.org/story/2005/10/19/131419/52
Rick
I was on record on this site a few months ago speculating the Colin Powell is as good a candidate to be a “Plame outer” as anyone.
Since he’s a DC careerist leaker, and only failed upwards as a result, it’s a simple matter of following his trajectory.
Cordially…
slide
now that is some juicy gossip. Can’t wait for Hardball tonight… as much as Mathews drives me nuts sometimes, he is doing the best show on Plamegate night after night. Can’t wait to hear the take on the Daily News article about Bush knowing Rove was involved and what implications that has for Bush as it certainly makes him, if nothing else, a serial liar on the matter. And we’re not talking blowjobs boys and girls.
Mike S
Stevie Hayes is an absolute hack.
slide
Question: Was Cheney on that flight with the president and Powell in which the State Department Memo was discussed? I don’t remember any reporting saying the VP was on that flight.
slide
this post doesn’t list Cheney as being on the flight.. and I would find it highly unusual for the president and vice president to both be on such a trip.
Andrei
I dare you to cite where I ever said such thing.
jg
LMAO
Gratefulcub
Matthews should be doing the best show on Plamegate, he has inside information. He knows what kind of questions Fitz asks. And when he teams up with Andrea Mitchell, they are just missing Tim Russert, they should be able to crack the case.
It still amazes me that we have journalists, reporting on this story, THAT ARE PART OF THE STORY!! If someone calls you, and leaks to you, then there is a story about who leaked……….Jesus H Christ!!!
Pb
Sully did some excellent reporting during Katrina, actually — the best collection of links and information on the subject I saw at the time. Not to mention his “Fire Mike Brown” campaign, which was absolutely the right thing to push for. Hey look–I just mentioned one more substantive fact about Sully’s reporting than John Cole could muster in his above embarrassing yet typical baseless ad-hominem tirade–what a shocker!
Paul L.
Gratefulcub allow me to use the Mike S. argument.
Chris Matthews is an absolute hack.
I must say that responses you gave refuting the links I posted leaves me unconvinced.
Lines
John Cole thinks Drownie should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Thats better than Sully anyday, right?
Mike S
Mathews is a hack. Doesn’t change anything about Hayes. The great thing about Hayes is no matter how many times he;s been refuted, even by the Pentagon, there will be plenty of people on the right who will play willing bukkake recipient to his lies.
Steve S
It’s amazing how much Sullivan get’s quoted.
When he’s yet to be right about anything.
jg
ewwwwwwwww!
Dave Ruddell
Find a cite where John said anything nice about Brown. What? You can’t? Ass.
dylan
Rick says “careerist leaker”
I say: Last conscience left in the PNAC’s DC.
Condescendantly
Colin
Kimmitt
I stopped reading Sully a while ago, and my life is just plain better. I’m better informed, I sleep better, and I even lost an inch or two around the middle. I highly recommend this therapy for other Sully readers.
Rome Again
I’ve always considered him an interesting specimen to observe, but not one whose table manners I should adopt.
Paul L.
How about a link to s Steven Hayes refutation.
I must remember this line next time Cindy Sheehan/Michael Moore speaks up.
“there will be plenty of people on the left (moveon.org) who will play willing bukkake recipient to his/her lies.”