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From pow wow in the comments:
looseheadprop @ 108 -
This is the real deal, lhp - just out today, and it’s a Section 6(c) ruling, not 6(a). [See emptywheel’s recent thread “CIPA Fun” and its comments for more information on last week’s 6(c) filings and developments. Things clearly started to come to a close over the last week.]
The previous thread here has more details on today’s filings. I’ve posted the full Order at #70. AP and MSNBC have reported on it so far today, and this IS HUGE. Libby’s efforts from Day One of this indictment to get a graymail dismissal, have in fact failed, as of today.
It’s too bad most of the media have ignored the tremendous efforts that have gone into achieving this decision - starting especially intensively in late September, and not concluding until today. This is a very, very significant victory for the government - especially given that it was looking less and less likely after the 6(a) ruling you reference. But Fitzgerald and Friends managed to pull it off in the end.
It’s actually hard to absorb the full import of this CIPA ruling today. THANK YOU, Judge Walton…
Here's the MSNBC report.
And a Merry Mini-Fitzmas to all of you, too!
Share This 
Spotlight
FITZ!
Merry Fitzmas!!!
fiiiiiiiiiitz!
….and the Wax Man cometh.
Strategerie @ 0
am
In the meantime, why am I thinking Scooter had to change his slacks when he was notified of this?
-S
Ooo! This was, like, his *entire* defense, was it not? Because other than the greymail, he pretty much has nothin’?
So, does that mean no more appeal by Fitz, and Kobe can start packing his bags to attend the trial in January?
those damned activist judges, eh, Scooter….?
Sorry Scooter.
Do you think these under-siege rogue elephants in the Whitehouse are going to do a damn thing for you now?
Ha…ha…ha…..They are worried about THEIR legacy now, not YOURS.
Oh, too funny.
-GSD
And now that the elections are over, that means Fitz can get on with the actual trial, right?
Eli @ 5
He has the post-trial appeal based on being denied his greymail defense…
GSD @ 8
They *do* need to get rid of Cheney so they can start grooming Dubya’s successor…
Although I think that would actually be the electoral kiss of death at this point.
Swopa @ 6
My dog can wear a special pack for long hikes, but pack his bags? This I gotta see!
I still have a file of Fitzmass Carols left from last year. Time to dig them out. Should I post them on my site? Anyone want them?
Given that this strips away his last best hope, what’re the chances of Scooter, like, singin’ for us all now? Now that would be a concert I’d pay to go to.
Scooters got a bad case of the Fitz. Time for a new pair of manpris without a stain on them Scooter?
-GSD
curiousgeorge @ 14
BushCo = Mafia.
Draw your own conclusions.
(Obviously, I do think he might take down Cheney, but only under orders)
I’m no plameologist, and Jane is out and Christy has been traveling, so I won’t pretend to be able to interpret what it all means. But my naive understanding is that this will be appealed, of course, and it is yet to be revealed if such appeal will postpone the trial date.
It’s possible, I would gather, that the appeal would not necessarily derail the start date of trial, even if the appeal has not yet been fully reviewed. But I’ll leave it to the legal eagles to tell us more for sure.
Pachacutec @ 17
Does the start date matter much at this point? The Republicans were already successful in stalling it past the midterms, for all the good it did them.
Let’s see, Scooter had the graymail defense. Governor McGreevy had the gay-male defense. Mark Foley had the gay-mail defense.
Anything I’m missing?
-GSD
GSD @ 19
Cheney has the game-male defense.
Cheney’s was the lame-quail defense.
-GSD
one issue on this that concerns me. You rightly said a victory for the government, in this case the prosecution.
we have yet to see if it is a victory for the people, considering it is our government that is clearly an enemy of the people.
Eli @ 18
And since it’s too late for the ‘06 cycle, the longer it delays, the better for us … yes? I say let’s delay the verdict well into the ‘08 election season. Now wouldn’t that be fun!
Well, the fact of a start is more important than the actual date, in my view. We do of course want justice.
My only way to contribute to this is through political analysis. If the tiral starts in January, it will make news, just as the new congress convenes. This can help set the frame for the next two years and into 2008. Message: the GOP is hopelessly corrupt. Put, for example, Waxman’s hearings in the downdraft of the Libby trial, with Deadeye having to testify, or whatever unfolds in the high brinksmanship of trial avoidance, and no matter what the White House does, it’s really fucked.
I hope the folks at C-Span and the Court channel are ready for the avalanche of goodies that are coming their way.
curiousgeorge @ 23
This thought occurred to me as well, but I wouldn’t want to play chicken with 2008 and give the Republicans a chance to run out the clock into 2009.
Plus, many of the people who were not against Bush when this story first broke, well, now they are against him.
The story will have more currency now that more and more people see the Whitehouse as corrupt, out of touch and war-mongering.
-GSD
No, I don’t think delay confers any meaningful political leverage. Momentum to begin the new congress is good. But really, the strength of the Fitzgerald operation has been its credibility, being as it has been impervious to political calculus. In that context, the best thing to happen politically is for the prosecution and trial to occur according to its own logic and timing.
Libby, Rove, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush. In that assending order. I want them all. And I don’t care how long it takes.
Looking at DeLay on Hardball now. This man is an absolute nut.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 29
Rove. I want the Bush Whisperer.
Pachacutec @ 28
Absolutely. Fitz is not a political animal and therefore whatever he does avoids the “taint” of politics. Let the games begin.
Swopa @
6
Kobe is packin’ his bags as we speak.
Booyah!
Great news!
Where you get that photo? Classic!
RevDeb @ 31
This is what made all the trolling and spinning about this case so inexplicable to me, since the ultimate outcome would have absolutely nothing to do with what anyone outside of the case thinks.
Apparently Greymail dies harder some places than others:
Olmert on Monday also called on Germany to cut its vast economic ties with Iran, saying Berlin’s obligations toward Israel were greater because of its Nazi past.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/799619.html
Ha’Aretz is characterizing Olmert’s disclosure of Israel’s nuclear arsenal earlier today as most likely “a slip of the tongue.”
curiousgeorge @ 23
Get Deadeye indicted, impeach the chimp => Nancy?
Jane Hamsher @ 32
Pu-leeze take a pic, Jane, so I can show Strider. We’re trying to teach him to close the shop door behind him and every little bit of inspiration will help.
RevDeb @ 13
Hell Yeah! I’ll bring the mulled wine.
Pachacutec @ 24
Of course we do. However, we wouldn’t turn down their heads on a platter, either.
[Note to Secret Service: The above is a METAPHOR. No politicos were harmed in the writing of this comment.]
[Or maybe it’s a simile. I always get those two confused.]
epu’d
watching Rose and Delay:
blech! they are talking about dead moms, dads, and babies, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, etc.
Brick by brick the neo-con castle is getting dismantled and it is starting to crumble. Evil was the builder, but the demolisher also uses the anvil of evil. I can’t wait until all the neo-cons are wiped from this earth behind prison walls.
Have a holly jolly Fitzmas
We’ll see if Scooter sings
With the greymail done
We’ll have more fun
And Cheney’s throwing things
So, for someone that has to explain this to a bunch of 17 year olds tomorrow, how would you explain this to GW (without giving him the audiobook version)?
“The White House is totally constipated,” a former aide complained. “There’s not enough adult leadership, and the 30-year-olds still think it’s 2000 and they’re riding high.”
Poor Bush had a week that reeked
http://www.nydailynews.com/12-.....2763c.html
Bustednuckles @ 42
I know this isn’t the right chorus, but I’ll sing it anyway.
Thumpety thump thump!
Thumpety thump thump!
lisadawn82 @ 38
OK, Lisa just for you (and whomever else wants them). Go to the site and click on “Fun Files” It’s on the top.
Pachacutec @
28
Our perception is that it is impervious to political calculus, yet all Fitz’ attorneys are part-time on the case, the boss man on the case has a full load in his office in Chicago, and Alice Fisher doesn’t seem eager to add resources. We’ll never know until long after the trial what bureaucratic battles were fought that took this trial past 2004, let alone 2006.
In this community, we perceive Fitz as unpolitical in his pursuit of justice and unflappable in his pursuit of the truth. But there’s more going on there, and Fitz has to deal with it all, and I betcha some has to do with higher-ups and their higher-ups. It must.
PS Pach — here’s a link you might like to read, about the current Gibson mistreatment of your Mayan ancestors. The article is well-written and quite adversarial. Zachary X. Hruby, Ph.D., is a lecturer and research affiliate in the department of anthropology at UC Riverside, and senior archaeologist at CRM Tech in Riverside. I learned some things reading it. ‘Apocalypto’ Does Disservice to Its Subjects”
Oklahoma kiddo @ 44
Whoa!
Now, how can we test that statement?
Jane Hamsher @ 32
I hope he remembers to bring the smoking jacket.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 44
Funny, the place seems to be chock full of stoolies as of late.
-GSD
HotFlash @ 48
I’m pretty sure they’ll get it right before he drinks himself to death, but it’s a nice little rationalization for him to comfort himself with as he becomes the most reviled president in American history. He can clutch his blankie and tell himself that eventually, *someday*, after he’s gone, the world will finally realize what a brilliant macho visionary he is.
But right now reality is just too stupid to recognize his greatness.
GSD @ 50
And they certainly can’t be saying that the WH has a shit shortage.
RevDeb @ 46
You’re soooo cool. Thanks, I just downloaded them. Appreciate it.
RevDeb @
25
I’d hate to be the scheduler at C-SPAN, come January. . . “Hmmm . . . House and Senate floor sessions take priority on -1 and -2, but then we’ve got Waxman’s committee going, the armed services committee looking into how broken the military has become, an open session of the Intelligence committee is getting testimony on the ISG report, Judiciary revisiting the Habeas Corpus debate, Homeland Security is examining the state of Katrina relief, Energy and Resources is investigating price fixing by the energy companies, and then there’s the Senate and their committees. Better see if we can set up C-SPAN 8 fast.”
IANAL but this legal finding is huge.
Both the prosecution and the judge have been working diligently to keep things on track and get the case to a point where the appealable issues are at a minimum.
Specifically there has been a lot of back and forth on the greymail issue, with the prosecution ordered to go back to the drawing board on secret documents more than once, to get that fine line between necessary evidence and not revealing national secrets.
I think we just dodged a big one here.
Darn it — I figured your next post would be a moving eulogy to Augusto Pinochet! His family needs to grieve their loss, after all.
Peterr @ 54
“The Ocho” - as C-SPAN becomes increasingly like ESPN and MTV. Possibly in more ways than one.
Peterr @ 54
Maybe C-Span 3 could stop showing programs that are jewelry sales, and deal with, I dunno, issues of national importance?
How ironic is it that a President of the United States of America can have deliusions of grandeur?
All I know is that when I either see or hear Bush I think BE GONE!
pach, this is GREAT holiday news FOR AMERICA
I can’t WAIT for jane or christy to give us their own breakdown
shooogarp @ 58
Maybe he just has visions of suicide.
Bush is a brilliant and macho visionary, but the people cannot see it. He wears a garment of material that is so fine that only he (and Rummy and Hadley) can behold it. We see him as naked because we are inferior - the huddled masses - too stupid and shortsighted to come in out of the rain. He is the Great Decider. He is ahead of his time, ergo he cannot be pershiated in his own time.
hackworth @ 62
We see him as naked because he keeps mooning us.
egregious @ 55
I just saw an interview the other day with George Foreman, talking about his fight with Muhammed Ali in 1974. Ali played “rope-a-dope” with him, sitting back on the ropes and taking every hit that Foreman could throw. Foreman was known for his fearsome power, but for the first half of the fight, all he could hit was Ali’s arms. Then the tide turned, and Ali began to take the fight to the tired Foreman, eventually knocking him out in the last round.
In the interview, Foreman said that early on, every time they got into a clinch, Ali kept talking to him: “Is that all you got? Is that all you got?” Once Ali got up off the ropes and began punching back, Foreman had nothing left. “In the late rounds, he kept up that refrain in the clinches, and there was nothing I could do about it.”
Kind of reminded me of the final swordfight in The Princess Bride, as Inigo repeats the same line, with his voice getting stronger each time despite his injuries: “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father - prepare to die!”
Team Irving’s been swatting at Fitz for months now, but I think Fitz is coming off the ropes soon . . .
“Is that all you’ve got, Irving?”
RevDeb @ 46
Just spent the last 20 min chuckling at the carols. Thanks, what fun! Egg nog!
Eli @ 62
If he ever does pull a Hitler-in-the-bunker stunt, I predict he would use Saddam Hussein’s pistol to do the trick.
It would have all manner of oedipal/Freudian symbolism to the little coward.
Mrs. K8 @ 66
I think that would be the absolute last thing he would use, actually. Not sure what he *would* use, though - probably something associated with either Patton or John Wayne.
Eli @ 64
So funny, Eli.
Eli @ 67
I don’t think he would have the courage to pull the trigger. I think he’ll hop on a jet in the middle of the night to Panama or Paraguey, or somewhere where no one can get him and bring him back to face the consequences of his actions.
Olbermann’s third story is about Bugman’s blog.
John Casper @ 70
I *finally* see the need for a blogger ethics panel.
RevDeb — I love your site. You have a very tasty blogroll.
Off topic: A month or so ago, someone asked me to post when my interview with Carolyn See went up. You can see it here if you like! The question about the Washington Post came from someone here, but I can’t remember who, sorry!!
Mrs. K8 @ 67
Never, ever will happen. He hasn’t got it in him. Everything he ever accomplished came through back channels, family connections, dumb luck and OPM. He holds not an ounce of that kind of courage.
LindaR @
73
Haven’t put anything new up in a while– been busy working– except of course, the Fitzmas Carols this evening. I’d forgotten how clever they were. The DailyKos community went wild with this. Very creative.
“I’ll be dead when they get it right”… Bush.
Wrong again Mr. Prez. We “get it” now.
DeLay is a lunatic. More importantly for me though, this man is a criminal. The ‘jails of Texas are upon you’. Tom.
Millbank thinks 26% is W’s floor.
We shall see. I’m looking forward to seeing him go below 30.
RevDeb @ 74 — it was easy to stop posting for a while after the election. I don’t know about you, but I was exhausted. And I wasn’t that active compared to a lot of people.
And the crickets start making noises in Byron York’s perm.
RevDeb @ 76
I think 20. I remember seeing that as a “Strongly Approve” poll number earlier this year and thinking that anyone who still strongly approves of Dubya will never, ever be swayed.
LindaR @ 78
I pretty much stopped commenting except for on smaller blogs, and posted mostly frivolous stuff on my own blog.
LindaR @ 79
Yep. And I had to return my focus to the kind souls who fund my paycheck.
“I’ll be dead when they get it right.”
Yes, and I’m sure Gavrilo Princip was thinking of the fall of the Berlin Wall when he shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
On Olbermann. Millbank scores. He says the “rhetoric will be detached from the policy”. I like it.
PeteCO @ 83
20,000 years from now, when mankind finally abolishes all war and disease, Dubya’s ghost will point and say, “You see? I was proved fucking right!!!”
KO
ISG “trip to the woodshed by proxy?” Wayne Slater says yes.
Heh. Bush will be a more consequential president than his father, but the consequences will be “enormously bad”.
RevDeb @ 76
I predict he’ll go below 20. Things are so bad in so many ways. He broke the military, which is bad. But he and the Republican congress broke almost all the infrastructure of government.
For instance, Taco Bell’s current troubles are probably related to the evisceration of inspection protocols. I wonder how many children will die this year from dangerous toys brought in from China?
The guy on Olbermann just said Bush wants to be a “consequential president.” Well, we are certainly suffering the consequences of his presidency.
LindaR @ 88
Mexican bioterrorists! Time to open up a southern front in the Global War On Terror!
RevDeb @
13
Oh Yes my dear if I’m not too late I would love some - may I have a dozen or so - if I’m not being too piggish.
newspaperbrat @ 91
Lots to go around. Click on my name above and go to the “Fun Files” page. It is there. The DKos community outdid itself pulling these together. I picked out lots of them and saved them.
On KO now, the Tom Delay Blog story. What fun.
I hope that Amato gets that clip up on C&L.
Priceless.
you know, when they announced a few months ago that the Baker commission findings would be released after the midterms, I commented here that the Dems should call bullshit, that they shouldn’t let Bushco have free political cover.
My suggestion was to announce something over the top, that Baker would recommend reinstating the draft. Turns out, that was not so far off…
Unions oppose ‘draft’ of federal workers to Iraq
Is Dangerstein in charge of Tom DeLay’s blog?
TRex, if you are listening, you might be able to come up with some kind of Late Nite treatment of that concept.
Mrs. K8 @
67
Things being what they are in the current White House and Iraq, it would misfire….
Oh goody:
there’s more.
RevDeb @ 93
I hope he gets Mike Allen referring to “Rusty Trombone” on Hardball. That would be fun to send to his bosses, complete with the definition of such.
Jacqrat @ 98
Having read that definition, my brain needs a wash, a serious wash.
The documentary “When We Were Kings” tells the story of that Ali-Foreman fight from 1974. I have heard George Foreman refer to the film as “When I Was Stupid.”
Of course, he would say that because in the fight, his lack of insight into Ali’s strategy kept him from devising an effective counter strategy that might have saved his energy and given him a chance to win. In the case of Scooter, not only is he wasting a lot of effort and money and his lawyers’ time pounding like a dope on things that are rather obviously off-subject, but unlike Foreman, he doesn’t seem to have an even theoretically good alternative strategy. I guess the plea-bargain train is but a dim memory by now. And his don’s don(’s don?) may be requiring a service from his don any week now.
There are some nice popcorn recipes back on the Waxman thread …
Well, lhp should see my note now… Gulp. [But thanks for the highlight on this ruling, Pachacutec.]
On the appeal: There’s a pending government appeal [D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Docket #06-3174] of the [earlier CIPA Section 6(a)] ruling, that has the potential to delay the start of the trial. It’s possible the government won’t pursue that appeal, having won here in the final round, so to speak. Time will probably soon tell on that.
Today’s 6(c) ruling, as Swopa points out near the top, can’t be appealed by Libby until after the trial, and there obviously won’t be an appeal by the government of today’s 6(c) ruling in favor of the government’s position.
I believe the Intelligence Community probably deserves a giant share of the credit for today’s result: they worked long and hard with the prosecutors to declassify as much material as possible, and to carefully substitute for what could not be publicly released. Libby is getting mounds and mounds of classified information into the trial, based on the 6(a) ruling, and should have little basis to win an appeal of today’s 6(c) ruling, from all appearances to date [and without having read today’s sealed Opinion by the Judge that accompanied his Order]. It seems to me that Judge Walton came down firmly on the right side of the CIPA scale with today’s judgement call. Very well done by all concerned, on (our) government’s behalf.
“Bush is a brilliant and macho visionary, but the people cannot see it. He wears a garment of material that is so fine that only he (and Rummy and Hadley) can behold it. We see him as naked because we are inferior - the huddled masses - too stupid and shortsighted to come in out of the rain. He is the Great Decider. He is ahead of his time, ergo he cannot be pershiated in his own time.” Hackworth
Sid Blumenthal said I think on C-Span recently that all the references to W as Churchill and Truman come from Condi. She’s the enabler.
RevDeb @ 95
I was an intern at the State Dept right after Reagan took office. The top positions were already filled, but many of the second line political appointees were not yet in place. During that kind of transition, the career folks step into the breach as “acting” directors, asst. secretaries, etc. until the new administration fills out its appointments.
That was a relatively peaceful transition from one administration to another. Here, however, things are a bit different. The career folks at EPA (and elsewhere) will function as “acting xxx” to replace those who left, but given the amount of pressure that these folks have been under to produce politically “appropriate” regulations and research, I would imagine that at least some of them will be taking a big gulp of fresh air - perhaps for the first time in a long time - and be willing to step up for the sake of some sound science.
They also might be more than a little happy to help Henry Waxman’s folks go through the files. With fewer rabid political folks in the way to slow things down, this might just speed up the whole investigative process.
Pass the salt . . .
RevDeb @ 78
I put in long ago for 23.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation that Joe Wilson mentioned in his visit here has made the news . . . From Kristen Roberts of Reuters: Group seeks probe of evangelical military video