Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, who has repeatedly declined to discuss his role in disclosing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, said in a speech this week that he is certain President Bush knows who his mystery administration source is.
Yeah, thanks, Bob. I'm pretty certain he knows too.
Novak said Tuesday that the public and press should be asking the president about the official rather than pressing journalists who received the information.
I think the press HAS asked, and the answer is "We're not telling."
Novak also suggested that the administration official who gave him the information is the same person who mentioned Plame and her CIA role to Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward in the summer of 2003.
"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, according to an account published yesterday in the Raleigh News & Observer. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."
You'd be amazed? Well, that doesn't exactly bolster your assertion, Bob, since we all know your credulity level is rather high.
Woodward disclosed last month that he, too, learned about Plame's CIA role in a confidential conversation with a senior administration source. Many involved in the case believe that Woodward and Novak had the same source.
Though neither journalist has identified the source publicly, both have said the official was casually providing a tidbit of information and did not seem to be trying to generate a story to discredit Wilson's mission.
"Casually providing a tidbit of information"? See what I mean about the credulity thing?
Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has been investigating for two years whether senior Bush administration officials broke any laws in leaking Plame's identity to the media. On Oct. 28, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, was indicted on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstructing the investigation.
Woodward declined to comment yesterday. Novak's attorney, James Hamilton, declined to comment on why Novak is now discussing the case.
Novak said in his speech that an investigation into his role in the Plame affair "snowballed out of proportion" as a result of a "campaign by the left." But he also blamed "extremely bad management of the issue by the White House," saying, "Once you give an issue to a special prosecutor, you lose control of it."
Ah, Novak is fucked up on sooo many levels:
1) The Plame investigation snowballed because of a campaign by the left? It didn't snowball because what BushCo told the investigation didn't jive with what the journalists told the investigation, thereby encouraging the special prosecutor to delve deeper?
Are you sure?
2) How exactly do you downplay the leaking of a state secret for political retribution, Bob? Jeez, I know you're old enough to remember Watergate, and Nixon only fucked with the Democratic Party's secrets, and people's personal secrets, he didn't fucking leak classified information to faux-journalist toadies as payback for critical column in the NY Times.
At least not that we know of.
3) Surely even you, Bob, realize that the elephant in the Plame investigation room is the war in Iraq. You know, the one where over 2000 Americans and (conservatively) 30,000 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives? You were a big fan in the beginning, remember? And then the plot got complicated, and the budget got out of control, and it got depressing, and then the new season of Desperate Housewives came on, and you stopped watching the war and talking about it so much? Remember that? Okay, so if operatives for the FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES go to this much trouble to smack down some little no-account former ambassador, and stop him from asking public questions about pre-war intel, then MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE A LOOK AT THAT PRE-WAR INTEL. Specifically, if the "Saddam tried to buy uranium" documents were forged -- who fucking forged them? It must have been someone who chose to profit by that. And who would that be, Bob? Huh? Or am I snowballing ya, buddy?
4) I love that he says that the WH mismanaged the issue. Yes, they certainly did, and I'm pleasantly surprised that you admit that, Bob! Oh, wait. According to Bob, it wasn't the lying about how they're going to find the leaker that was the mismanagement part. And it wasn't the stonewalling of the press under the guise of a transparently phony concern for the investigation that was the mismanagement part, either. It was the fact that BushCo allowed Ashcroft to hand the investigation over to a non-toadie investigator actually determined to do his job! That was their misstep, according to Bob.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think Bob Novak has spoken candidly for the first time in his life.
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