Posts

This is a follow-up to my post speculating that Cheney got his talking point about DOD and State being interested in the Iraq intell from the documents Valerie Wilson wrote before Joe Wilson's trip to Niger. This post will do something very simple: show where that talking point shows up, and where it doesn't.

This is the post I've been promising for weeks, in which I will speculate wildly as to the source of Cheney's knowledge about Plame's role at CPD and in her husband's trip. Here's the argument, in brief:Cheney learns during the week of June 9 that "Defense and State expressed a strong interestin the Niger intelligence"At a time when Cheney presumably already knew that information, he tried to get CIA to repeat

Mark Kleiman argues that the Democrats should see BushCo's refusal to turn over proof that they buried details about Pat Tillman's death as a godsend. This is the scandal, he argues, over which the Democrats should choose to confront Bush. This is a Godsend for the Democrats in Congress. The committeesshouldn't compromise at all; this is the case we want to go to warover, in the courts and the court of

I found this story on the National Review cruise over at Susie's place. It's the perfect comedy to accompany the Sunday shows--stories about what nuts Republicans when they presume they're alone. There's a lot that worth reading, not least the portrayal of the Podhoretz-Buckley feud (with Buckley almost--but not quite--disowning his conservative offspring).

We all know that Harriet was a no-show for her date with HJC on Thursday. We all know that Harriet refused to testify based on some new opinions issued by DOJ. But I've seen almost no discussion that explores why BushCo decided to take such an inflammatory approach with Harriet's testimony. It seems there are two likely answers to that question--or rather, questions that need to be answered:Why did Bush choose to

I'm just now catching up on the Sara Taylor non-testimony (the webcast is still available here). And I find her to be interestingly sharp--in that she backs off of some points that the Republicans would like to put in her mouth. There's an exchange with Arlen Specter, for example, in which he prods her to say that Tim Griffin was very qualified to replace Bud Cummins (this happens just before and

Back when Dow Jones and the AP renewed their bid to unseal the materials relating to Judy's and Cooper's subpoenas, they asserted--apparently based on self-serving public comments by Novak, Rove, and Armitage and on Victoria Toensing's self-declared omniscience in all things Plame--that Fitzgerald's pursuit of the journalists' testimony was unnecessary. Recently, the public learned that the Special Counsel's pursuit of those reporters was entirely unnecessary for him to determine who had leaked

If the hapless Democratic Congress ever gets around to an investigation through which they can ask Reggie to turn over the CIA Leak case grand jury materials. But for now, I'd say he's still cranky, wouldn't you?In commuting the defendant’sthirty-month term of incarceration, the President stated that thesentence imposed by this Court was “excessive” and that two years ofsupervised release and a $250,000 alone are a “harsh punishment” for anindividual convicted

The NYT reports that Sara Taylor will come before the SJC today and testify about some things. Sara Taylor, the former White House political director, has agreed toanswer some questions as a “willing and cooperative private citizen,”during testimony about the United States attorney firings last yearwhen she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee later today. But, as a former presidential adviser, she will also honor thepresident’s invocation of executive privilege to keep quiet