Entries by emptywheel

Beat All the Press

The press saw the same thing we saw yesterday, that Cathie Martin revealed the dark underbelly of WH press strategy.

Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.

But it was more than her testimony that revealed the underbelly. First, here’s how I described her testimony of the notes she took from which the Russert news came.

[Martin describing the note] At top of backside her notes.

Tom Cruise and National Security

Here was my own personal favorite moment in the trial coverage on Wednesday. At one point, Cline was questioning Schmall about all the thing that Schmall’s work, as a briefer, helped Libby do with his work. He introduced 7 of the 9 very important things that Libby will use in his memory defense.

The CIA Got the Niger Documents!!!

Here’s the holy shit no one has noticed from yesterday. Here’s the version of the INR memo introduced in court yesterday.

You’ll note in the last paragraph of the second page–it says, “These documents, which were sent to Washington via both CIA and [State] Department channels…”

This is really big news. The CIA got the forgeries.

The Libby Trial 1

I’m sure you’ve all either read my liveblog or read some reviews of yesterday’s coverage, so you know the stunners and new information from the first day of the trial:Libby is throwing Rove under the busAri leaked (according to the very unreliable Wells) to David Gregory, something which none of his colleagues knewLibby has his own annotated copy of Wilson’s op-edCheney wrote some orders on Libby’s sonnet looking for Scottie to

Thoughts on Liveblogging Libby

Just a few quick thoughts before I hit the sack.

I just saw the Bush’s approval rating is at 28%. I can’t help but think that his approval rating was still around 50% when this whole process started, when Libby made the decision to risk a jury rather than settling rather than flipping on Cheney.