[Qrhzbadu]

Originally posted by Jaguar
Nobody cares QFnobodycares

[Automobill]

I'm posting from class. You think I have anything better to do?

[dgdhgjjgj]

I thought this was well known before today, or at least widely speculated.

Good on Bush for not letting Armitage and Powell take the heat on this.

[Tactattcahhaw]

Surly mood. Growl, growl. Turns out to be some gossip queen. Damn.

[HoniSoniproca]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Widely speculated but not confirmed. Should however put the "string Rove up by his gonads for treason" crowd in a surly mood. Not really. There's plenty sufficient for Rove to have his share of rope or wall space.

[AndyColemants]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

Hitchens has a good piece on it How can you use Hitchens and good in the same sentence? He remainds me of Dennis Miller, considerably less entertaining since he went off the deep end.

[Mqcawkzd]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


How can you use Hitchens and good in the same sentence? He remainds me of Dennis Miller, considerably less entertaining since he went off the deep end. The air is so thick with irony you can cut it with a knife.

[assohillA]

Yes, Virginia, there is NO Fitzmas.

[Ervntewc]

That makes no sense. Picking a noncontroversial figure intended to sell more copies. Face it the only people who were going to buy the Isikoff, Corn book were Bush haters. The vast majority of the US was "who cares". Implicating someone other than Rove, Cheney, or other dastardly figure in the administration is a huge anitclimactic event guaranteed to be a downer to the only audience this book was going to have, namely the haters.

[in4wikiu]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
not much interest in this huh? No eevil neocons at fault. No more discussion of the greatest piece of treason in years huh?

Hitchens has a good piece on it

http://www.slate.com/id/2148555/ Another excellent perspective-piece by Hitchens. The liberal bobbleheads who stoked this non-issue and those that continue to distort the facts are simply pathetic.

[Heaneisismich]

I don't look at it like that. They made a mistake, they reported it to the WH, and then it was a circle-the-wagons exercise. It was a non-issue from the beginning, so it wouldn't have been right for Powell and Armitage to take heat on this. The lawyers fees and stuff are just the price of doing business nowadays.

[imporesweemo]

To be honest, I don't know why Fitzgerald is continuing this, but it's possible that Libby's memory was a lot more dubious than we know, and Fitzgerald thought that Libby flouting his investigative authority needed to be punished (for the good of the system or whatever).

[heennaRaf]

Fixed.

[Ornamiviant]

Armitage was only one of Novak's sources, but it is confirmed.

[XYTommy]

LotM,

I agree wholeheartedly.

[aparneioninny]

From the depths of long dead threads, this latest add to the otherwise forgetable saga.

NOVAK: ARMITAGE DID NOT TELL ALL
Wed Sep 13 2006 08:37:07 ET

"When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, the former deputy secretary of state's interviews obscured what he really did," Bob Novak claims in a column set for Thursday release.

Novak, attempting to set the record straight, writes: "First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he 'thought' might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column."

Novak slams Armitage for holding back all this time.

Armitage's silence for "two and one-half years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Rove of being my primary source," Novak explains.

"When Armitage now says he was mute because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's request, that does not explain his silent three months between his claimed first realization that he was the source and Fitzgerald's appointment on Dec. 30. Armitage's tardy self-disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive."

Developing...
Drudge

[vosteglog]

Come off it, Berz. The Whate House was royaly screwed by Powell in this whole affair but you refuse to let it go due to some unfathomable reason. I'm just curious why Armitage wasn't charged and Libby was.

[MasTaBlau]

What has become interesting in this story is the description of Armitage as a 'gossip'. He's never struck me in that manner and Novak has called him to task for the whole fiasco.

An interesting piece from an unusual source (I may ID him later)

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
Commentator: Drudge has a little blurb here of a Robert Novak column that is going to be published tomorrow. "'When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week that he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, Armitage obscured what he really did,' Novak claims. Novak, attempting to set the record straight, writes this. 'First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something that he had heard and that he thought might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.'"

Let's go back last week on the CBS Evening News, I think it was Thursday, Armitage, being interviewed by CBS reporter David Martin, and Martin says, "So what was it that made the light go on to you, Mr. Armitage?"

ARMITAGE: I was reading the newspaper column again of Mr. Novak, and he said he was told by a nonpartisan gunslinger. I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, "I'm sure that was me."

Commentator: I always thought that sounded odd. I mean, you know you told Novak, and then you read it in the newspaper and you see not a partisan gunslinger and you think it's you, when you know it's you. Novak is saying this is more obfuscation, this is not at all what happened. Then, he went on to say in the interview that it was Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, that told him to shut up and not say anything about this all during the nearly three-year period that this dragged on.

So again, Novak writes, "First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he thought might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked and said flatly that she did recommend the mission to Niger by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson." They're still out there lying about that. Second, writes Novak, "Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column." Well, that's even more strange, he's saying, ah, I read Novak's column, partisan gunslinger, whoo, my God that might be me. When he knew it was him all along. Novak also slams Armitage for holding back all this time.

"Armitage's silence for two and one half years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government, and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Karl Rove of being my primary source, Novak explains. When Armitage now says that he was mute because of Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's request, that does not explain his silent three months between his claimed first realization he was the source and Fitzgerald's appointment on December 30. Armitage's tardy self disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive."

Hmm, makes me wonder what Armitage was thinking going out there and speaking, knowing that Novak was going to contradict him, or could if he wanted to, and has apparently in a column that is going to run tomorrow.

[Loxaeed]

Originally posted by SpencerH
What has become interesting in this story is the description of Armitage as a 'gossip'. He's never struck me in that manner and Novak has called him to task for the whole fiasco. Both Powell and Armitage are known as gossips, in the best sense of the word. Normally, they don't have loose lips.

[itsmycock]

From what I've read, Armitage "let slip" the name because suspicion was falling on State that they were responsible for Wilson and were trying to keep from falling further out with the White House. What Armitage claims he said was that Wilson's wife suggested him, and that was the extent of it. Novak did a little detective work and discovered she worked for CIA and what her name was.

Course, what she was working on was the Iranian nuclear program . . .