NYT on Libby: His friends must have been busy last night

[Bumblebee]

Powerful Ears Still Turning to Adviser

By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: October 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 - In a city where proximity is power, I. Lewis Libby Jr. begins many of his days by sharing a limousine ride to work with his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, and ends them long hours later having counseled Mr. Cheney behind the scenes on issues as diverse as the insurgency in Iraq, economic policy and prospective Supreme Court nominees.

But now Mr. Libby's close relationship with Mr. Cheney and his influence throughout the administration have helped make him a central figure in the criminal inquiry set off by the disclosure more than two years ago of the identity of an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/politics/23libby.html

WP has a longer piece on Libby:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102201439.html

[hopein08]

1. He's married to a Democratic lawyer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the NYT article it says that he's married to Democratic lawyer Harriet Grant who was was General Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee, when Biden was Chairman.

This is nutty, folks!

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. What does that tell you?

Lawyers are taught to argue both sides of an arguement, and now they play both sides with equal ease. What do we do about raising the bar on loyalty in the Democratic party?

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Save Our Libby!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Place puff piece in two top news organs.

CHECK.

(Do the NY Times or Washington Post have any shame at all anymore???)

[skids]

7. news oooorganssss...

heheh.

[jrthin]

4. So, Libby is so psyched

for the Iraq war, which one of his children, I ask, will be volunteering to serve in it.

[Rose Siding]

5. That's just what I thought-

The NYT ends with:

But friends and associates said Mr. Libby is not at heart a political animal. They suggest that whatever legal problems he faces from his role in pushing back at criticism by a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, of the administration's use of pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs, he was acting not as a political hatchet man but in defense of ideas and policies he believed in.

So see, he's so noble that he was COMPELLED to compromise and destroy the career of a CIA agent. Felled by his own good points. Where will we build the statue? :puke:

[KoKo]

8. John Dean said they would go for that Defense.

His article up on DU earlier today said that they could use "National Defense" as an issue. They thought they were defending the Nation and so they had the ability to use whatever means they had to do it. Lying, Cheating, Stealing. Apparently it is a defense. :-( That's why Dean thinks they have to be gotten on the conspiracy charge or witness intimidation.

The article is somewhere from this "Find Law" site. I wonder if they think the country will buy that defense of defense argument. With Bush's poll numbers down, I don't think so, but it's all they have at this point. :shrug:

[Bumblebee]

9. But who is their audience? Obviously not Fitz and not the "base'"--

so it's the "compassionate" among us and independents. Almost like a plea: don't hate me too much; look, I am even married to a prominent Democratic lawyer. It's not going to work but interesting that they are trying so hard, hitting both major newspapers on the same day. The angle is all off, though. National security is one thing but lying to a special prosecutor and covering up?!! What does that have to do with anything but one's own personal security?

PS: and the fact that he writes novels is supposed to appeal to "us" as well, to humanize him in the eyes of people who detest what he stands for -- like it has helped Lynn Cheney a lot! :)

[Rose Siding]

12. Maybe it's a pre-emptive strike to justify the pardon

[Bumblebee]

13. Maybe

[joemurphy]

10. He also believed in those ideas and policies so much that

he proved willing to lie and knowingly attempt to subborn the testimony of another grand jury witness.

He was also guilty of manipulating the evidence in order to get us into a war.

"The level to which Libby and Cheney stooped to get their war was highlighted by the momentous presentation of Saddam’s ‘‘threat’’ before the United Nations Security Council by then Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell gave a presentation six weeks before the war where he said, ‘‘every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions.’’ Those assertions resulted in grudging acceptance of the war from many Democrats.

Virtually all of Powell’s solid sources fell apart when the United States turned Iraq upside down, killing thousands of Iraqi civilians in the process. He would have looked much worse had he listened to everything Libby and Cheney tried to feed him. It was Cheney’s staff who wrote the first draft of Powell’s UN speech. It was Libby who suggested, in strategy meetings at the White House, playing up every possible, conceivable threat of Saddam — with the emphasis on the word ‘‘conceivable.’’

A US News and World Report story in the summer of 2003 quoted a senior administration official as saying Libby’s presentation ‘‘was over the top and ran the gamut from Al-Qaeda to human rights to weapons of mass destruction. They were unsubstantiated assertions, in my view.’’

Powell, according to both US News and Vanity Fair, was so irritated by Libby’s hodgepodge of unsubstantiated facts that he threw documents into the air and said, ‘‘I’m not reading this. This is bullshit.’’

Libby, whose nickname is “Scooter”, was particularly unhappy that Powell had thrown out sections of the presentation that would have attempted to link Al-Qaeda to Saddam, including a discredited report that top 9/11 Al-Qaeda airline hijacker Mohamed Atta had a meeting with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague. According to Vanity Fair, ‘‘Cheney’s office made one last ditch effort to persuade Powell to link Saddam and Al-Qaeda and to slip the Prague story back into the speech. Only moments before Powell began speaking, Scooter Libby tried unsuccessfully to reach Wilkerson by phone. Powell’s staff chief, by then inside the Security Council chamber, declined to take the call. ‘Scooter,’ said one State Department aide, ‘wasn’t happy.’’’

According to Vanity Fair, Cheney himself urged Powell to go ahead and stake his national popularity on the nonexistent evidence by saying to Powell, ‘‘Your poll numbers are in the 70s. You can afford to lose a few points.’’(Link to Cheney deepens ‘leak-gate’ scandal - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Op-ed - News)

[fooj]

6. "Almost mosquitoesque", indeed!

:smoke:

[Neil Lisst]

11. Libby couldn't find Honesty with map and a guide dog.

he's an evil scum bag

[cassiepriam]

14. PR piece to humanize him, get him a lighter sentence.

[Kber]

15. But one thing you've all missed

is that Libby is an "aide to the President" and in the "President's inner circle". Maybe there's some arm twisting going on behind the scenes, but if Libby's allies are the source of this story, there was also a shot across the bow in the infighting between Cheney and Bush camp- i.e. - take Libby down and risk more damage to the president as well as the Veep. Cheney isn't going down alone folks.

More popcorn please.

edit - i really need to spell check before i hit "post".