Leakgate is About a Week Away From Being Gotten Away With

[Sliverofhope]

"We have let the earth-movers roll in over this one (i.e. the Plame investigation).

"Senior White House official"
Financial Times
December 5th, 2003


If you slap the press around enough and keep your people's mouths shut you usually get what you want.

Usually ..."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_12_07.html#002318

My question: should we just officially renounce this to the scrapheap, or is there some way we can raise a final ruckus?

[proud patriot]

1. LTTE's campaign

across the country would go a long way
to helping this .

[Sliverofhope]

2. LTTE?

I'm out of the loop on this one, sorry.

Oh, Letter To The Editors, I'm guessing.

[proud patriot]

5. LTTE = Letters To The Editor

:hi:

[fishguy]

3. This editorial was in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/03346/250311.stm

[proud patriot]

11. It's good to see this ..Thanks for posting

:D

[TacticalPeek]

21. Thanks, fishguy.

from the postgazette editorial:

"When the matter first surfaced, this paper advocated putting the investigation first in the hands of nonpolitical Justice officials. Some members of Congress were calling for the appointment of a special independent counsel, given the possible conflict of interest created by a Justice Department headed by Attorney General John Ashcroft and the alleged involvement in the affair of Mr. Rove, an Ashcroft godfather.

Given the failure of the Justice Department to produce results in its investigation -- not even a grand jury subpoena so far -- we now recommend that an independent counsel be appointed, and that the Justice Department be required to turn over any information that has been found so far.

It's clear now that Mr. Bush's underlings heard his Oct. 7 message. The word in Washington today is that, indeed, the administration official won't be found.

That is unacceptable in terms of the implications for America's intelligence officers working in dangerous circumstances overseas. It must not be allowed to stand."

---

It won't stand eventually, but the question is how long? I hope we are not reliving the election of 1972.

Nah.

[calimary]

28. I just sent a letter to the editor to the Post-Gazette. Do it! Do it with

other papers, too!

You just go to the "contact us" part and click. Then you go down the list of all the places to contact, toward the bottom of the page, to the "letters to the editor" - and click again. Then you'll get a form to fill out with name, email and phone number, plus your comments. VERY easy. Takes about 60 - 75 SECONDS.

If they think we don't care, they won't either!

It's up to us. SHEESH, am I back to nagging about this again?

[sandnsea]

4. It's simmering

To be brought to a full boil when needed.

[maggrwaggr]

22. it's needed NOW. How low can your burner go?

seems like it's on ice to me.

[remfan]

6. That "Usually..." at the end has me wondering if Josh knows

something is coming, or am I reading too much into it?

[Sliverofhope]

7. I can never tell for sure

It does suggest something, as Marshall himself said "Words mean things." However, it would be better if something happened amidst a clamor of rage. You can never be too prepared these days.

[bluestateguy]

8. Like the Lott controversy, it will only go away if we let it

Why isn't any of the 9 candidates or MoveOn.org running ads about this?

[Sliverofhope]

9. Because we on the left lack single minded fanaticism

But I'm getting there. Or maybe some direction from the Wilson camp? Channel the 24/7 seething rage into something productive.

Does the left need an army of freepers, or is that just being low and silly?

[maggrwaggr]

24. the left needs its own Rush, Hannity, Colter

people who are extreme and obnoxious and get heard just because they're extreme and obnoxious.

We have no one.

See, it's all carefully orchestrated by them. They have loud loud mouthpieces who are SO extreme that the radical politicians in power actually APPEAR mild and innocuous by comparison.

It's simple really.

We need a cable TV channel where the kind of stuff we spew here can be spewed to a wide audience, to shake people up, to get them to think.

[HootieMcBoob]

10. Good Point

We should all contact the candidates as well as moveon.org and whoever else we can think of. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette article is excellent. Especially given that the Pittsburgh Tribune Review is Richard Mellon Scaife's paper. I'm sure they haven't touched the subject in a long time.

[veracity]

12. Reminder: email campaign for a whistleblower .....

TVNL has had a whistleblower campaign for months...and thousands have signed up (according to the editor). Here's our chance to do something insted of just talking. The four major anchors can be reached with a click of the mouse... and we can add a demand that the Wilson story be investigated.
It might do nothing.. but then again...... who knows? The FCC ruling was turned around because of Internet email responses. There's nothing to lose by bombarding these guys and demanding a whistle blower.

http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/speak_up.html

[ozymandius]

13. You will not see much action between now and the beginning of the year.

Washington empties out during this time. Congress takes a holiday and the press corps cycles through its holiday vacation schedules.

All of this will be brought back in due time. The CIA will not forget.

BTW - MoveOn and George Soros are allocating millions of dollars to unseat Bush. This too will be seen and felt in a timely fashion. Right now is just the wrong time to kick up dust about this stuff.

[Sliverofhope]

14. Dammit, politicians always

seem to be on vacation. They get paid for facilitating fascists and taking breaks. As much as I believe there's so much suspicious about 9-11, the dumber I find the establishment to be, the more I wonder if it wasn't just massive incompetence.

[Oilwellian]

30. I totally agree

If anything's going to break, it'll be after the holidays.

"We're closing in on your punk ass, Bush."

[tabasco]

15. I doubt that the CIA has forgotten.

They are probably waiting for an opportune moment to drop the bomb.

[BrotherBuzz]

16. Henry Waxman hasn't given up...

and I'd like to think he'll be on the telephone during the holidays listening to fine people who have something to say. Wouldn't a New Year's day announcement of a break in the Wilson/Plame investigation be great?

Calling all spooks and spies. If you want to help Congress get to the bottom of the scandal over Iraq intelligence, nowÕs your chance. Later this week, a key member of Congress will issue an all-points call for intelligence analysts to blow the whistle on President Bush, Vice President Cheney and others in the Bush administration who may have distorted, exaggerated, manipulated or lied about intelligence on Iraq in the run up to war.

By creating a Òtip lineÓ on his official Web site, Democratic congressman from California Henry Waxman is encouraging current and former U.S. national security officials to come forward and disclose how the administration played with intelligence on IraqÕs alleged weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda. A ranking member on the House Committee on Government Reform, Rep. Waxman is making it possible for officials to go on the record or remain anonymous, according to one of his aides.

The announcement that Rep. Waxman intends to ask whistleblowers from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies to come forward will be included in a letter to Rep. Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican who chairs the committee. The letter will also ask Davis to begin an official investigation of how the name of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph WilsonÕs wife, Valerie Plame, was leaked to the media. Wilson, a retired diplomat, helped quash forged documents that Iraq sought to buy uranium for bomb-making in Niger, and subsequently Plame, who was an undercover CIA officer, was outed by anonymous U.S. officials.

¥more¥

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9562

[buycitgo]

27. why doesn't waxman run for president?

seriously.

I know he's uglier than a pan of worms, but he's ALWAYS stirring the pot.

who else has as consistently demanded answers from the junta?

he does his best, but the media ignore him. you never see him on the screamers' shows.

it's always Hatch this, or Spence that, vs. some mild-mannered right-center DLC DINO.

so sick of that.

Note to Soros: BUY a cable channel. devote the entire broadcast day to counter nazi programming

passing delusion over

[BrotherBuzz]

31. I like him where he is...

unless he wants to move into my cruddy district in Northern California and represent me directly. He is one congressman who is doing his job, and I can only wish others would wake up and be as diligent as he.

"he does his best, but the media ignore him. you never see him on the
screamers' shows."
Hmmm, I saw him on television spelling out how Halliburton was ripping us off on the Iraq fuel thing, and twenty-four hours later Bush* was admitting they 'might' be. Waxman doesn't need flash to do his job.

Hey, as for his looks, well, not all California elected officials are movie stars, but it seems that Rush is the only person that is really bothered by his looks, and I find that amusing. Personally, I think he's beautiful (and that from a married heterosexual, too).

[Zomby Woof]

17. guess another slice of Bushtoast got away

I don't see it served much around here anymore. I was thinking the Halliburton story would cause a rash of them, but maybe not.

No "Bush is toast! He's going down!" threads. No "Drip! drip! drip! Just like Watergate!" threads either.

I sure will miss telling those people the raw Zomby Troof about the current state of the media, the public, and politics. Ah well, they had to find out on their own...

[buycitgo]

29. btw, I have the waxen version of that album

great cover, yes?

even better full sized.....looking at it right now

"I am the slime on your video....oozing along on the living room floor"

pretty apt, hey?

[PurityOfEssence]

32. 'Tain't right to use corn like that, though...

Just ain't.

[mmonk]

18. We need a way to make a final ruckus for sure

Especially when they act like opposition to the Iraq situation is treasonous.

[tableturner]

19. Giving them rope.....

and letting them hang themselves via inaction. This has not been forgotten. I WANT the Bushies to think they can sweep this under the rug. They will arrogantly think they can get away with doing nothing. However, they in reality cannot do so. They can then be shown as the liars and frauds that they truly are. There has not been a big enough time of inaction to this point to garner public support for an independent prosecutor. Bush and company can say they are proceeding but have not had enough time to bring the investigation to fruition. Let's just let them think they are winning. In the end, their inaction will bury them. The American public best sees and understands black and white arguments. Outing a covert CIA agent is black and white and the public understands very well how heinous that is. Raising hell in a few months will get a lot more accomplished than to do so now, so quickly after the investigation started. Get the nooses ready and use them in good time.

[maggrwaggr]

20. the Dumbocrats in congress have let another one get away

these guys are so fucking stupid they'd use a winning lottery ticket to wipe their ass.

THEY MUST GO.

[giantrobot_2000]

23. I noticed this too.

I think that Josh Marshall has a tip on something that isn't public yet.

Remember, the spooks NEVER forget.

[maggrwaggr]

25. Yeah sure. Now we're relying on the spooks?

This is up to us, folks.

Pass the buck to the spooks, nothing will get done.

There was a war within the CIA between the old-guard Bush folks and the new guys who are pissed off at Bush due to the Plame outing.

Maybe the old guard won?

We'd be the last to know.

[giantrobot_2000]

26. Huh?

"This is up to us, folks."

Huh? The public doesn't have the inside information that can blow this case open.

[Dr Fate]

33. I still love em, but most DEMS REFUSE to tell the truth about Bush...

DEMS should know by now that if they dont educate the public about these scandals, no one (and certainly not the media) will...

Some of the candidates are doing this, but most DEMS still REFUSE to tell the truth about Bush for some reason...