What's up with Karen Hughes saying "Valerie PLUME"

[Jane Austin]

on Meet the Press?

Was she playing dumb so nobody could pin any part of the outing of Ms. Plame on her?

Then, after saying in answer to virtually every question Russert asked, "Tim, I was there . . . ." she demonstrated having taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

Is this her effort to show us that she was always under oath and therefore, credible?

I'm sorry, but I don't buy it.

This woman is on top of everything that happens in politics, either to push it or spin it, and she darned well knows the woman's name is Valerie Plame.

Her interview today makes me think she's talking real fast and trying real hard so nobody will notice that she might have been there then, too.

Sounds like a good case of "Me no Alamo" to me.

[buycitgo]

1. incompetent, lying half wits

did you see Ed "ScrewNose" Gillespie on MTV, referring to "Stinko de Mayo?"

swear to god.....Daily Show had it

he looked the MOST weaselly little ferret faced rathead you've EVER seen, wearing a ballcap and everything, too, just like those hepcats at RNC who groove to the mosdef sounds n'tude.

btw, can you give a recap of any specifics? I turned of MTP as soon as I heard she was on next. I'd just eaten

she REALLY gets my goat......though, I seem to have that reaction to whichEVER pugthug is onscreen at any particular time. each and everyone is ineffably, nauseatingly despicable.....beyond description.....each succeeding one is worse than his/her predecessor.

how do they do it?

[angryinoville]

2. How DO they do that?

These MF's are seriously repugnant/ I can't stand any of them. They get worse every time!

[Jane Austin]

12. Well, I TiVo'ed it, but

Dang, that woman talks so fast it would take days to cover everything she said!

One funny thing, though, was when she flat-out said that Bush had not opposed the creation of the 911 Commission.

Russert sort of chuckled and read two quotes, one from Cheney and one I think from Bush which totally refuted her silly lie.

[Jane Austin]

28. I forgot something she said.

She trilled that it was such a joy to have the chance to teach her son to drive while she's been in Austin.

Can you IMAGINE having that woman teach you to drive? It'd be enough to wed you to public transportation for the rest of your life!

[Gman]

3. Oh No! She said "Valerie Plame" for a very good reason

at least to them. I immediately thought she was distancing Bush from it for some reason. My next thought was that indictments may come down this week.

In any event, it was an attempt to immunize Bush from something Plame related.

[snippy]

22. I wondered about her reason also.

[peacetalksforall]

4. I'm convinced Karen R is back because Karl R is going.

And it's probably all right with her family. Isn't that nice?

[Jane Austin]

27. Seems like I read somewhere that her son

is going off to college this year, so that would leave her a little freer to be away from home.

[Cocoa]

5. she is Orwellian

she brought up Plame out of the blue, citing his supposed concern about the leak as evidence of I don't know what, when in reality he was likely involved in it.

[Raven]

6. She also said that she had worked with the people to make the banner

on the aircraft carrier that Bush appeared on to declare "victory". I thought that the administration had disavowed any involvement in that.

You know the old saying "If you don't lie, you don't have to remember what you said". I think she's talking too fast to catch herself.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Karen Haghes said that? n/t

[bandy]

14. She sure did...

I heard it too! At the time, I could not imagine why she would admit that after * tried to separate himself from it.

[SoCalDem]

8. It's a page out of the .."Mr. Lay?, um I think I met him once,

when he was campaigning for my opponent".. playbook..

distance.. that's all it is.. feigned ignorance/innocence

[Killarney]

9. She's worse than Rove

because she's insidious.

You look at Rove and you know he's an asshole. She's comes off, down-homey, I'm just an innocent nice woman and mother and you can believe me--smile. That's why she's more dangerous than Rove could ever be.

[ljm2002]

10. I noticed that too...

..."Plume".

And I agree with others, it's her sly way of distancing her and the rest of the White House cabal from the incident, as in "see, we don't really know who she is, can't even get her name right."

Scoundrels, every one of 'em.

[Jane Austin]

11. She thought it was sly, but I thought it was clumsy as hell!

n/t

[1971]

15. "Plume" was no flub... she's gotta know the name....

... so her strategy has to be to feign innocence whenever possible, however possible. And in doing so, show contempt for those who would criticize her precious President and the Bush administration.

[Jane Austin]

30. Mispronouncing someone's name intentionally is like

giving them a nickname without permission. (Remind you of anybody?)

It is very demeaning and condescending.

[The Night Owl]

13. The fact that Hughes, not Russert, brought up the Plame case was odd.

Did anyone else find the fact that Hughes brought up the Plame case without prompting from Russert kind of odd?

Perhaps Hughes is expecting some of her comrades to be indicted in the Plame case and is talking about it so as to control the story before it gets out there. In other words, I think Hughes may have inadvertently tipped us that a big shakedown is coming.

Holy Hell... That would be a riot to see Bush honchos in handcuffs. A major arrest in the Bush White House would make Bush's reelection prospects incredibly uncertain. Of course, Smirk will probably opt for reselection, not reelection.

[buycitgo]

16. what the hell was Russert's response?

did he drop it, just like he does ANY serious questioning of ANY member of the junta?

daily howler is by far the best source on Russert's fatuity/venality.

check his column back during the selection, during which he highlights Russert bringing up, and allowing Bush to DWELL on the whole Gore/alpha male consultant scene, which was UNTRUE to begin with!

[The Night Owl]

17. Russert said nothing of the Plame case. Link to MTP transcript here...

Today's MTP transcript can be found here...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4663767

The following is an excerpt from a transcript of NBC's Meet The Press...

...

MS. HUGHES: Well, Tim, I'm not sure that I characterize it that way, because what I've heard the president say is he wants all the facts to come out, he wants the commission to be able to report fully to the American people. After all, he and his national security team are responsible for preventing another attack. But I've been in the White House and I've seen the competing pressures there. There are a lot of factors at work when you're the president of the United States. He has to worry about protecting the lives of the confidential informants that we're relying on, sources and methods and human intelligence workers who are out there around the world. You know the consternation that was created when the name of Valerie Plume was leaked as being a CIA operative. Rightly so. That was wrong, that someone leaked her name and jeopardized her career. But the president has to worry about protecting those intelligence methods and sources.

The president also has to worry about important constitutional principles. I remember being there in the East Room of the White House and holding up my hand and taking that oath to defend the Constitution, which calls for a separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. I'm very glad and I know the president is glad and so is Dr. Rice that they were able to find a way to balance that important principle of the Constitution with letting her testify in public under oath, because I think it's important for the American people to hear the facts. And actually, the debate about this has obscured the fact that the White House has given an unprecedented level of cooperation to this investigation.

MR. RUSSERT: But now in hindsight the president believes the commission's a good idea.

...

Note that NBC quotes Hughes as saying "Plume" instead of "Plame".

[Jane Austin]

21. That's Hilarious (Run-on Sentences)

NBC's transcriber did her a huge favor by breaking up her delivery into sentences.

I thought I caught maybe three in the first paragraph, but it's hard to tell.

She for darned sure didn't take a breath during that paragraph, unless there was one after "Plume".

BTW, in her machine-gun delivery, she came down heavy on "Plume" with a huge emphasis.

If it were notated as music, everything else would have been eighth notes, and that one word would have been a half or whole note

[grasswire]

18. BCG!

This was GOOD!

"he looked the MOST weaselly little ferret faced rathead you've EVER seen, wearing a ballcap and everything, too, just like those hepcats at RNC who groove to the mosdef sounds n'tude."

[buycitgo]

19. why, thank you!

ol' ScrewNose is way up there in the firmament of scumkings

and that's saying an awful lot

I love the way he can't EVER talk at a normal pace.

and he had the HUGEST, WIDEST, most exaggerated grin on his face, talking to that MTV guy

priceless

glad I have that on tape!

[eleny]

20. So, then - is she the leaker?

She was gone from the WH by that time. Then they could easily say that it was noone in the WH who leaked Plame's identity to Novakula.

[Jane Austin]

24. She's certainly a White House operative

whether she's on the payroll there or is an independent contractor.

I imagine she could have been, but I sure don't remember anything to suggest she is.

(edited for careless typing)

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

23. The most telling part of that interview to me was...

When Russert asked her what she would do after the election and her response was something like..I'm outa there...I'm going back to Texas.

Made me think, if i was a shrub supporter, even she's jumping ship! Lol

[leesa]

25. Trying to make it sound like a silly, inconsequential thing.

Stupid partisan politics, no doubt. Not a federal crime by any means.

[Jane Austin]

26. Kick!

n/t

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

29. She talks fast, that's the whole reason she's back

well that and she puts a downhome folksy show on the whole slimy mess.

I watched her this am until I couldn't stomach both her AND my yummy banana pancakes.

Can't you just SEE the meeting that went down in the White House a while back when they said "GET KAREN BACK!!!!"

The picture of them mopping the sweat off their brows just makes me smile and even giggle a bit.