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Dana Milbank's Washington Sketch picked up on something that Emptywheel highighted in yesterday afternoon's trial blogging. And it deserves a whole truckload of scrutiny. To wit:
"I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was a tactic we often used," Martin testified. "It's our best format."It is unclear whether the first week of the trial will help or hurt Libby or the administration. But the trial has already pulled back the curtain on the White House's PR techniques and confirmed some of the darkest suspicions of the reporters upon whom they are used. Relatively junior White House aides run roughshod over members of the president's Cabinet. Bush aides charged with speaking to the public and the media are kept out of the loop on some of the most important issues. And bad news is dumped before the weekend for the sole purpose of burying it.
With a candor that is frowned upon at the White House, Martin explained the use of late-Friday statements. "Fewer people pay attention to it late on Friday," she said. "Fewer people pay attention when it's reported on Saturday."...
On jurors' monitors were images of Martin's talking points, some labeled "on the record" and others "deep background." She walked the jurors through how the White House coddles friendly writers and freezes out others. To deal with the Wilson controversy, she hastily arranged a Cheney lunch with conservative commentators. And when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof first wrote about the Niger affair, she explained, "we didn't see any urgency to get to Kristof" because "he frankly attacked the administration fairly regularly."
Gee, should the change the name of the show to "Meet The Veep's Agenda"? Want to wager whether any guest on the show this Sunday will have the nerve to tweak Russert about this? And wouldn't THAT make for some must see teevee...
By the way, I'm with Emptywheel on this question: can someone ask Cathie Martin to name the "conservative commentators" who had lunch with Cheney to address the Wilson controversy. Because I would certainly like to know whether one of those commenters had a last name spelled "N-O-V-A-K." FOIA request on the Secret Service logs, anyone?
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Was Millbank in the press pool yesterday?
Do you guys have any sense of who’s reading this besides your loyal firepups (and your soon to be firepups who have joined us for this event)?
I noticed visits were substantially above normal yesterday.
FOIA would be great, excepting those Secret Service logs now belong to the White House per secret edict drafted by our witless leader… so, they’re covered under presidential privilege and archival procedure, I believe…
This is a surprise?
Sorry. I didn’t mean to grab a zed.
Wow.
And in the WP political chat this morning, another WP reporter agrees with Dana Milbank’s characterization of Timmeh as a repub tool …
From the WP online political chat this morning …
Lyndsey Layton: GOod morning Duluth. I think the very clever Dana Milbank is correct in his interpretation. In her testimony, Cathie Martin basically said that Meet the Press was a successful venue for the White House and “control message” means they felt assured they wouldn’t face an aggressive, hostile questioner who could reveal inconsistencies or otherwise damage their spin.
BOOM. Take that Timmeh.
Oh … here is the link to the WP online Chat
WPaintbuyingtimmehspin
Jay — I saw Milbank in the courtroom yesterday — and said hello to him going back in after lunch as I was leaving the courthouse to catch my flight yesterday. So yes, he was there to see the testimony, at least part of it, yesterday anyway.
http://www.cspan.org/videoarch.....veDays=100
Marcy Wheeler & Byron York, National Review
Marcy Wheeler, Author, “Anatomy of Deceit” & Byron York, National Review, White House Correspondent talk about the CIA leak case. Both are following the trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby closely. They discuss look at the revelations of the first week, the importance of the case, and the possible long-term impact on the Bush Administration.
1/26/2007: WASHINGTON, DC: 41 min.
Marcy is great. She deals with Byron and callers with ease, to say the least.
The thing about Russert is he asks some tough questions, but then doesn’t follow up. The Bush people are allowed to spin their tale in answer the initial question, but then there are no “buts.”
I guess you can’t hammer people too hard or they won’t come back and you won’t sell enough Preperation H to stay on the air.
c’est la vie.
klyde at 3 - I don’t believe that I said anywhere that it was a surprise. Although it is a bit amusing to hear it come out of the mouth of a WH press flack. *g*
Journalism has gone to the dogs.
Pun intended.
OfT a bit - :
What’s the deal w/Team Libby saying to witnesses - “We requested that you come in and speak with us, but you declined to do so, right?”
Subpoena’s, anyone? I mean, it’s not like they were surprise witnesses.
So, was it just that they already knew what the testimony would be, and declined the deposition just for the purpose of being able to ask that question in court?
I have never thought of Russert as a journalist. I assumed he stayed at a Holiday Inn every Saturday night.
Fitz organizes his witnesses along the time line, so this should help with keeping the jury from being distracted.
Brick by brick the case is built while brick by brick the facade of the WH is taken down.
Nice.
York’s spin this morning was that Wilson also went on Meet the Press. Look for that line tonight from the Faux All Stars.
jayt at 13 — Pretty much. It’s a fairly common defense counsel tactic in these parts. When I was in the prosecutor’s office, we told witnesses they were free to talk to defense counsel, but that they were not required to do so. And that one of us would go with them, if necessary, if they set up a meeting. Most of the time they declined to meet ith defense counsel simply because the process was overwhelming enough as it was for witnesses who had not been involved in trials previously. In one particular lawyer’s case, this counsel would sick a passel of private investigators on witnesses — so they not only didn’t trust this person, but they were pissed at him for having someone dig around in their trash, follow them around, talk to folks at work about them, etc. — it was really intrusive and over the top, in a particular case that I can recall. No idea if this has happened with Libby — and, honestly, there are good reasons and good ways to do this for particular witnesses that you suspect are giving false testimony in a good faith investigation — but it can also be used to intimidate and harass witnesses and that’s just uncalled for, in my opinion.
I regretted that I had a dentist appointment this morning, because I couldn’t turn on Imus. I wanted to hear what he had to say about little Russ.
Also, someone over at DKos remarked on Millbank’s tone of surprised discovery. I mean, he just figured this out?
old gold @ 14
That’s funny! Is that why he looks like that rodeo clown?
Christy,
I asked this in another thread but I’m afraid it got buried: Is it possible for Fitzgerald to bring charges against others (Cheney, Rove, etc.) if it is revealed in the Libby trial that crimes were committed? For example, if a conspiracy is revealed, can others be charged for their part in it?
I guess I’m asking if there’s any hope that more will be made of this than Libby’s charges and if someone will be held accountable for revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent and then conspiring to cover it up.
Thanks so much for your efforts!
I wonder if one of the guests will ask Tim Russert how long he’s been taking calls on the Chris Matthews’ Complaint Line.
“Chris, here’s a little testimony from the Scooter Libby trial, and we’ll put it up on the screen to let everyone see it . . .”
Meet the Press-MTP=Making the Propaganda
ccmask @ 22
How about MTP=Media Tepid Performance?
Journalism has gone to the dogs. Pun intended.
MTP had Cheney/ Rice/ Rumsfeld, etc on week after week to spew their “message” - their talking points!! They lied about aluminum tubes, mushroom clouds and ties between Iraq and Osama bin Laden. Liars!! They misled the American people into an illegal, immoral war and Tim Russert knew they were spinning!!
After Katrina - Russert appeared on Imus in the Morning and said something like - You spin about some things but not about this - meaning the fiasco of Katrina. He was furious with Bushco over that.
But he let them spin about the War in Iraq - for some reason that was OK with Timmy. Wow - he has lost all credibilty after that testimony yesterday. it was devastating to MTP - and to all the players in the Bush administration.
ps - Roberts met with Hadley and Rice over covering up the intelligence investigation of Bushco - he should be removed ASAP from office.
ditto - Cheney, Bush, Rice, et al!!!!
old gold @
14
Stop it! How can I possibly drink coffee while reading comments without it attacking my computer screen?!
Dang, I got EPUed. Marcy if you’re still here, regarding your statement about Hadley:
No straight arrow, but maybe outing a CIA agent was too far for him to go. I seem to vaguely recall that Cheney and Libby pulled something without his knowledge with regards to declassifying the NIE.
Right? Wasn’t he uninformed at some point that they had already declassified portions of the NIE in order to leak to Judy?
Could it be he is the 1 in 1×2x6? Maybe Libby and Cheney cut him out of the loop when he started pressing to stop blaming the CIA and then when it went so far as to out Plame, he could no longer be silent and began leaking.
Maybe at that point he thought only Cheney and Libby were involved and did not know the scope of the situation, i.e. Rove and Ari.
Oh, I get it! When Timmeh has Cheney on, we are actually meeting the press.
Sorry it took me so long to get it Timmeh. I thought the press was you.
this is not a revelation to those of us that recognize the media is corporate owned with a corporate agenda
and why would cheney visit with someone he knew would ask tough questions?
he wouldn’t…on the other hand I was surely surprised blitzer went after him the other day, that was a breath of fresh air and I am amazed cheney booked himself without getting guarantees
as far as bad news friday, that’s been going on forever but I guess the majority of people just diddn’t know it
Christy, at least one of those conservative commentators is David Brooks (although he’s never said so in print). I’m a Brooks-watcher, and he’s clearly a promulgator of several Bush myths which go directly back to carefully-parsed information from OVP. I’m fairly sure Brooks and Libby were socializing together back in 2003, and that Brooks used Libby for ‘insights’ about WMD and the supposed ‘progress’ in Iraq.
Also, Brooks reliably misdirects readers about the CIA leak, and has clung to early Libby talking points. (See Media Matters for a number of Brooks/Plame nuggets.) Brooks is so transparent sometimes, I just wonder why he hasn’t been called out on sourcing…
in re: “Meet The Veep’s Agenda”? Want to wager whether any guest on the show this Sunday will have the nerve to tweak Russert about this?
Here is how the tweak will go down:
http://www.leekspin.com/
Do they use the propaganda catapult to throw someone under the bus?
Bush overnight guest list
The Associated Press
President and Laura Bush’s overnight guests at the White House and Camp David in 2004:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....list_x.htm
Be nice is Timmeh came on naked Sunday in nothing but a tool belt.
dqueue @ 2
Actually I think Fitz already has them. If I recall correctly it was the logs that gave him a heads up on an unreported Judy/Libby visit.
I, too, want to know the names of the conservative journalists invited to the hunter’s lodge.
g’mornin’ jumping ahead to say Marcy is on cspan now. Sorry if this is a repeated comment.
C-span is replaying WSJ now!
-
Watching the C-SPAN re-broadcast - I was just gonna say that York sounds sane so far - but –
Scratch that.
Hey, Marcy agrees w/me - Cheney’s being on the witness list may be a total red herring…
I’ve been thinking about this ever since Wells’ opening statement:
Seems to me that Libby willingly chose to be “the fall guy” in the beginning - by making ridiculously obvious misstatements - to protect Cheney, Rove, etc.
Someone had to do it, and Libby was high enough in the chain to be trusted, but not so well known that he couldn’t fade into obscurity after a pardon.
However, now he is having second thoughts about being the fall guy, and has become willing to try to push it back toward Cheney and Rove, because:
a) Cheney no longer has the juice to guarantee him a pardon,
b) The Wilsons’ civil suit creates additional exposure that can’t be pardoned,
c) Rove is no longer the untouchable architect of a permanent Republican dynasty.
In other words, being the scapegoat was OK when Scooter thought his buddies had “ultimate power” to let him off the hook.
Now, he just sees himself as the guy stuck with sole responsibility of going down with the ship!
Whether Brooks went to lunch or not is a different story…did they say if Cheney actually had this lunch, or if it was proposed?
I’m just saying the Brooks has got great sourcing in OVP, and it involved Libby back in the day.
QuickSilver @
30
ccmask at 34 — I SO did not need that mental image. Blergh.
my question wrt to trial transcripts got lost in the previous thread’s EPU land… so please forgive me for re-asking it here….
paul asked where could we find the trial transcripts and emptywheel said she thought that they were only available to journalists for lots of $. but lhp had previously told us that “The trial transcript is technically a public document”.
does anyone know definitively what is the story with the transcripts? i’m sure i’m not the only one who would love to read some of them. *g*….
I wondered about this as I read EW’s transcription. It should make for an interesting discussion.
“Gee, should the change” [sic]?
Thanks for the information and such an illuninating site. The posts and comments are a mainstay of my reading here in the blog world.
ccmask @ 34
Was it really necessary to sucker-punch my inner child like that?
You really should got to C-SPAN 1 and watch emptywheel and Byron York (does he have a nickname?).
This may be one of the most important appearances yet on the front rank of cable TV media by a live blogger who isn’t also a “journalist.” The most fascinating element is how York, with his credentials from NRO, National Review, the Atlantic, etc. can’t get an honest, full grasp of the subject like Marcy so easily displays. He’s never closer than “three days off.”
I’ve been a reader of National Review on and off since the 70s, partially because they cover “classical” music fairly well. But this segment shows very clearly how and why what we’re doing here at fdl is eclipsing decrepit paradigms like National Review/NRO.
Once again - good job, Marcy.
Off to help my bodyguard tow my lame Golf TDI to Anchorage for ?
Christy Hardin Smith @ 42
Oh! Ditto! YuuCK!
NCBlueneck @ 23
MESSAGE TAILORED for PRESIDENT (M.T.P.)
My grandfather went down in his ship during World War 2. Libby doesn’t have the guts that my grandfather did.
Prior to my grandfather’s service, he worked at Brewster & Jennings pumping gas. I’ve got a great old pic of him pumping gas and in the background, there is a sandwich board that reads:
Due to the War effort, this station will close at 5:00.
Marcy is fabulous. Almost as good a Christy when she is on cspan. *g*
Interesting - I commented pithily to the Daily Nightly blog (of NBC Nightly News)on my surpise (satire) of the lack of their coverage of the Libby trial testimony to the effect that Reussert and MTP served the White House to advance its propaganda. Wonder where my comment went?
AP story on WH visitor logs
http://www.belleville.com/mld/.....392915.htm
While Fitz may have them, we’d like them too!
Sorry about the tool belt. It was based on an old fantasy of mine when, as a single mother, I owned my own restaurant. My only tool was duct tape and believe me, it did the trick. Open my toolbox and you can choose any color tape you might need.
I always dreamed of a guy knocking on my door in nothing but a tool belt filled with every new tool available in the Black & Decker market. I would take him by the hand and lead him to all the broken things in the restaurant and he would fix them….never happened.
As much as I love C-SPAN, where do these people come from who call in?
Wordsmith @ 54
College Republicans & their families?
Wordsmith @ 54
Rove has a boiler room in Camp David stocked with whoopie pies, cheap beer and baloney sandwiches and a never ending supply of Jerry Springer guests and American Idol wannabes.
They just have to follow the script and they get a $50.00 gift card to Wal-Mart.
-GSD
jayackroyd @ 1: “Do you guys have any sense of who’s reading this besides your loyal firepups (and your soon to be firepups who have joined us for this event)?”
Froomkin linked FDL and cited it as a strong liveblogging resource in his web column at WaPo the other day. So I think we can assume that the press is well aware of FDL’s liveblogging and that those reporters who are following the case from outside the courtroom are checking in somewhat regularly.
Plus, pretty much anyone interested in the whole Libby / Wilson / Iraq fiasco is bound to find their way here eventually, since FDL is providing - through Marcy’s liveblogging - the most extensive coverage of the case.
That’s got to add up to a *lot* of people.
And, I would imagine, that includes a lot of Washington insiders.
Especially since we now know that Cheney & Libby were poring over Hardball transcripts, it’s probably a good bet that someone in the OVP is watching the site as well.
To those who think FDL would be beneath the WH’s radar, I’d like to relate a little story about The Onion.
A couple years ago, I went to a B&N reading that featured The Onion’s staff writers. During the Q&A someone asked, “Does the WH ever complain to you about your satire of them?”
To which one of the writers responded, “No, really, they don’t contact us. They’ve got way more important things to ignore. Like, er, the will of the people.”
Anyway, it turns out, the WH actually doesn’t have more important things to ignore. A year or so ago they sent The Onion a C&D letter telling them they couldn’t use the Presidential Seal in their parodies. Which provoked two responses from The Onion.
The first, obviously, was a letter from them explaining that, yes, satire - especially political satire - is protected by the First Amendment.
That week they also started a new Parade magazine cover parody. Featured on that cover was a parody story about Laura Bush’s ongoing struggle with Anal Fissures, with the headline quote, “I just wish I could stop shitting blood.”
Anyway, the point I’m making is that if The Onion can attract the WH’s attention and ire, I think it’s safe to assume FDL has their attention too.
Marcy also was on Sam Seder this morning and they loved her - we expect to hear another update there next week!
Our ladies rock!
dqueue @ 2
selise @ 43
At some point, the transcripts will part of an appeal of Scooooter’s conviction. At that point, they will likely be published in as whatever the East Coast Court Report series is.
Until then, they will be available through the court. In California Superior Court, they run $5/page of transcript.
How do I know this? (IANAL, nor do I play one on TV.) Mrs BC analyzes opening/closing statement in her academic research … she generally relies on appeals, because of the prohibitive cost of obtaining the transcripts of obscure trials.
BC
I’m hearing from a lot of media that they are reading along with all of us as FDL covers the trial …
Pat_AlexVA @ 52
All roads (or Whitehouse doors) lead to Cheney’s office:
ccmask @ 55
I asked last night with tip of tongue in cheek, if Mel Sembler and Rupert Murdoch have a journalist camp of some sort. If so, it sure would explain these callers.
selise @
43
Sure it’s a public document; the Laws belong to The People, contrary to what LexisNexis would have you believe. However, transcripts aren’t always available immediately- someone has to take the court reporter’s file, make it into a PDF, and upload it to PACER:
http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/
where you can have the pleasure of viewing it. And the reason that EW has concerns about the $$ is that PACER docs cost $0.08 per page. May not seem like much, but word-for-word transcripts of all of those sidebar conversations, in 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced…
Eureka Springs, AR @ 62
There’s Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute, where such notables as Jeff Gannon took a journalism class or two…
I’m curious as to why Scooter Libby has willingly placed the noose around his neck? Arrogance or fear? This trial is lifting the veil of the WH machinations and Maestro Cheney’s insidious tentacle outreach and players are protective of him, why?
Will Scooter be disbarred if convicted?
JGabriel @ 57
Just yesterday I pointed out that the visitor logs showed many government depts. looking in.
Most were probably just curious employees, however, we all took note of eop.gov (executive office of the president), usdoj.gov, and nsa.gov.
It occurred to me later last night that this is so new, having an ongoing public description of events taking place in the courthouse that there is NO better source for the administration to get this information in the quickest possible way.
In the event things get really, really hot, FDL will be giving the administration a heads-up before reporters even get to them.
Ironic, no?
Ole Timmeh continues to get slammed on the WP online chat.
Russert: This isn’t exactly a state secret. Folks have been calling Russert the “attack poodle” for years. This is especially true when he likes or respects the person he interviews. Perfect real-world example. Which Presidential candidate, when attack-poodled about his lack of foreign policy experience on MTP gave the answer that he would bring in good experienced people and listen to their advise?
1. Howard Dean (2004)
2. George W. Bush (2000)
Answer? Both. Almost to the letter the same. Bonus Round, where the scores can really change. Now, given near identical answers, Russert replied…
1. Favorably for both.
2. Unfavorably for both.
Trick question! In fact, Russert took the exact same ansser to declare George W. Bush a smart manager and Dean unprepared for office. Russert has been a joke for years, it just took courtroom testimony for the rest of the media to admit it.
Lyndsey Layton: Thanks for sharing.
Lyndsey Layton is a congressional reporter …
Here’s the first (maybe only) installment of my new segment, “Mate the Press,” in which we look at what might happen if Tim Russert got busy with other prominent mainstream media personalities.
Consider, for example: If Timmeh got it on with Judith Miller, I imagine that their unholy get might look something like this.
Whoofah.
Ted Kennedy is on fire.
Hit ‘em again Ted!
-GSD
Eureka Springs, AR @
62
And that homey Oklahoman accent (yuull)was so cute, too.
Bryon York - ……. ……..
Ed*ard Teller @
46
I like to call him THE HAIR.
“FOIA request on the Secret Service logs, anyone?”
I’m now wondering if this is a reason, in part or in whole, for the Secret Service’s recent change in policy to transfer logs to the White House, making them Executive branch papers not subject to FOIA….
Thanks dqueue.
There may be as many as 6 immunized witnesses including Ari? Did I miss something, or is this just more of Leopold doing what he does?
By the way, has Leopold been around the courtroom for the trial? It sure sounds like HE has copies of the transcripts rather than first hand knowledge.
I’m supposed to be cleaning the house. The cats are complaining.
However, the point seems to be lost on what the trial is about….perjury vs Joe Wilson’s traipsing off to Niger “on his own.” Dick Armitage’s role….
Actually, it is clear, and it hurt both Libby and Chimpco.
Why the press reports the trial as some unfathomable event the outcome of which in its discreet segments or as a whole is always a toss-up is beyond me - it’s not a toss-up, and you (and Dana Milbank) know who’s winning (and if you still don’t, its the gov’t).
Now, I really don’t find trials particularly interesting, b/c I don’t think there is drama, and I think that most nearly everything that takes place takes place (including yesterday) takes place in almost every federal criminal trial and the defense and the prosecution are well versed in their roles and prepared for what the other side is going to do - and that includes the attempt to try to “bootstrap” evidence.
The press ALWAYS writes about white collar criminal cases as if they’re edge-of-your-seat thrillers, but their not. And, as a great example of this, go read press coverage of the Martha Stewart trial (as well as the appeals regarding the jurors, since appeals on those grounds are quite common and typically go nowhere).
The most interesting thing I read yesterday was a quote in Swopa’s post attributed to Judge Walton:
Assuming it is accurate and that I am correct that the “he” in the sentence refers to Libby (correct me if I’m wrong), but that is the Judge in the case speculating about the defendant lying and the defendant’s reasons for lying. And if you don’t find that interesting or telling, well, I think you’re missing something.
I’ve written that it is my belief that in federal criminal cases prosecutors get the home court advantage, and the judge speculating about the defendant lying and reasons for doing so, at least for me, kind of proves the point.
I noticed the FCC was logged on also.
Just a coincidence that Ms. Martin was testifying and that she is married to the head honcho at FCC.
Right?
BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAAA.
Meet, Depress
Great timing:
The whole thing here.
Otisishungry - Glad you’re back. Hope you have time to continue to comment.
jayackroyd @ 1
Go here to find out the “surge” of the weekly visits.
Go here to find out locations and ISPs.
Lunch with the VP over the weekend… an opportunity spread the word, maybe regiment the troops also. It would be interesting to know what was said then, as well as who was there.
Tim Russert wrote a wonderful homage to his sanitation worker father “Big Russ” which he hawked around NBC, CNN, etc. shamelessly as if this book was of national importance.
This is the problem with Tim Russert. He is not an intellectual. He is not a deep thinking journalist. He is a quoter of news, and that’s about as much Press as you get on Meet the Press. He is one step away from the aptitude of Big Russ and has been in over his head for a long long time.
We, the American public end up with this psuedo journalist garbage collector overseeing what was once a respected new analysis program.
In the end, he is recognized as a light-weight by men of Cheney’s low-life character, and manipulated week in and week out to sell their message.
Cathi Martin’s comments and insights are not for one minute surprising or new information for those of us who watch and wonder what is going on in this country as this group of right wing thugs have abused and stepped beyond the constituitonal limits of their prescribed powers.
People wonder how Cheney sleeps at night. (Everyone knows how the empty-headed W. sleeps soundly.) I wonder how Russert sleeps at night, and when at dawn, when garbage trucks make their rounds, and garbage cans bang around outside his window does he shudder with realizaton they are calling him out?
yellow at 74 — I have heard nothing about 6 immunized witnesses in any of the trial testimony, nor have I seen it in any of the filings that have been introduced thus far. As for Leopold at court, I have no idea because I’ve never met him — and I didn’t meet him in either the media room or courtroom, but I can’t say that I met everyone there either. You might ask him whether he’s been there or not?
The Bush/Cheney strategery is working so well.
Turkey openly mulls invading Iraq.
-GSD
(Snip)
Onur Oymen, the deputy chairman of the Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said: “Northern Iraq is the only place in the world where a terrorist group can operate without being pursued.”
“If the Iraqis and the US are not prepared to take action over this, then we must.”
thank you smiley @ 63 and Bargain Countertenor @ 59!
wow, w/o official transcripts available to the public - marcy’s liveblogging is the only play-by-play of the trial i and the rest of the american public have access to. and christy’s analysis is the one i trust.
again… many, many thanks to the entire collaborative effort - especially jane!
Do we know when the lunch for the conservative commentators was held?
What was his ship?
ccmask @
49
Byron York on CSPAN with Marcy Wheeler. He throws out a fact or half a fact, spins it, treats the spin as fact, extrapolates from that, treats the extrapolation as fact, spins the extrapolation, treats that as fact, and so on until he runs out of breath.
It is a pity that the moderator never gave time to Marcy to deconstruct Byron’s nuttiness. He also seemed pretty tolerant of callers whose main interest seemed to link everything bad in the universe to Democrats and attributed the nature of evil to disagreeing with Republicans.
Watch Olbermann NOT cover this embarassment to NBC about Tim Russert, just like you don’t hear him talk about Andrea Mitchell’s role in the Plame outing. KO’s a hero to many of us, but there’s a place he will not go when it comes to NBC.
ccmaks: “I always dreamed of a guy knocking on my door in nothing but a tool belt…”
Kinda gives whole new meaning to the phrase “carpenter’s crack”.
Evil Parallel Universe at #76:
If you watched these developments unfold since the beginning and participated in the speculation, the liveblogging is an edge-of-your-seat affair. Every new revelation promises revelations to come.
With Ari up next, I’m practically planning a sick day….
OT: Less whiny than “Give it a chance,” but “I’m the Decider” scanned better. Two out of five on the EvilDrPuma Dickmunchometer.
WaPo’s Broder chat cancelled today.
I guess I don’t understand the wonder at this?
press the meat has always been an absurdity. it was always obvious it was just a tool to put out propaganda. all the established newsies are tools for this kind of release. we have seen that, as they have all been used by the spokespiehole to repeat drivel.
it does seem funny when the show is supposed to be about the news, and it is about, nothing?
Teddy at 90 — To be fair, a lot of those restrictions are placed on KO and his producers by NBC’s legal department — who has to be urging them not to talk about it until NBC’s portion of testimony (Mitchell’s, Russert’s, etc.) has been completed and they have been cleared off the witness docket. I know that’s what I’d be doing were I the legal department — there’s a conflictof interest issue that could put their testimony in jeopardy otherwise. NBC should be up front about it — but it isn’t fair at all to blame the reporters and shows whose hands are tied in this — the decision to comment or not is coming from much higher up the chain on this, I would bet.
Quicksilver - I’m just talking about the trial of Libby on the specific charges. I’ve posted before that the trial and the information that has (and will) come out, in a larger context, political or otherwise, is both interesting and important. They are different things.
EvilDrPuma @ 68
707!
Christy, I’ve wanted to ask …
When the defense first mentioned the words “Rove” and “scapegoat” were there any interesting reactions from others in the room … such as gasping, groaning, claping laughing, high five???
Anything from the prosecution table?
ccmask @
34
ew