October 04, 2003
NEWSWEEK FINGERS MATTHEWS....Joseph Wilson has said
several times that although Karl Rove might not be the person who
originally leaked his wife's name, he thinks Rove was definitely
involved in pushing the story. Here's how he put it to Ted Koppel last Wednesday: What
I have confidence in — based upon what respectable press people in this
town have told me — is that a week after the Novak article came out,
Karl Rove was still calling around and talking to press people, saying
Wilson's wife is fair game.
The gist of the message, as it was reported back to me right after
the phone call, was "I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He tells
me your wife is fair game."
Who was the reporter who said this to Wilson? According to David Corn, Newsweek will report tomorrow that it was Chris Matthews.
Needless to say, Matthews isn't commenting, and this doesn't really
move the story forward much. Still, it's one more name to add to the
list.
Posted by Kevin Drum at October 4, 2003 09:35 PM
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"Your wife is fair game."
Legality aside, it just turns the stomach, doesn't it?
Yeah. I actually prefer not to focus on the technical legality of
the whole thing. It's both reckless and disgusting, regardless of
whether they broke the law.
Chris Matthews? But Wilson said his sources were "respectable press people" . . .
If his wife was fair game, then why was Arnold a continent away? Usually he tries to jump on things like that.
I always think I can't possibly respect Bushies less. But they keep surprising me.
tweety might just end up in gitmo!
Put tweety in the same cell as Rush.
Chris the Screamer-
I'd love to bitch-slap This Whore.
He's such a cover-Bush Bitch.
Am I wrong?
I'm glad that we're in agreement!
This could be part of the reason reporters in the know may not want
to come forward. If Newsweek identifies Matthews, he becomes part of the
story and the complications could limit his ability to comment except
as a subject. It may not be fair, but it could also make him look
collusive and disingenuous at this point.
I've been thinking that the leaks were made to "journalists" and
"reporters"... I'd honestly never considered Tweety in that subset. Huh.
Go figure.
Hmm... let's play Spin the Pointed Finger! If we assume that Robert
Novak of CNN and Chris Matthews of MSNBC were, in fact, leaked this
information, to whom was the information leaked at the False News
Channel?
If Newsweek identifies Matthews, he becomes part of the story and
the complications could limit his ability to comment except as a
subject.
Matthews' limitations in commenting are also constrained by his god-given inability to not be an utterly sycophantic twit.
I guess I'm missing something here. The hostility directed toward
Matthews in this thread is baffling to me. Folks may not be fond of
Matthews, and may think he's a bad journalist, but in this situation,
he's one of the good guys -- or at least, not one of the bad guys. He
got the all clear from Karl Rove to continue leaking the identity of a
covert CIA operative, and instead of doing that, he notified the agent's
husband to tell the man what's going on and who's doing it.
So dislike Matthews if you want, but this seems the wrong thread in which to bash him relentlessly.
Any thread will do for bashing Matthews mercilessly.
He is lower than pond-scum.
Chris the Screamer- I'd love to bitch-slap This Whore. He's such a cover-Bush Bitch.
Ah... the eleqouence, the civility, the polished articulate reasoning of the contemporary Left.
Micael D.,
Faux News must have receieved the info and even they didn't use it. Perhaps only Novak would use it.
It seems to me if a reporter called Joe Wilson and said, "I just
talked to Karl Rove and he says your wife is fair game", the reporter
has already revealed his source. Subpoena the reporter and ask not "Did
Karl Rove say this to you?", but, "Did you say this to Joe Wilson?"
Matthews was also consistently against the Iraq war from the start, for whatever that's worth.
If we assume that Robert Novak of CNN and Chris Matthews of MSNBC
were, in fact, leaked this information, to whom was the information
leaked at the False News Channel?
My money's on Hannity.
I'm suspecting now that the "after July 14" cadre that Rove called to push the story is far larger than a mere 6 people.
So here's my theory: maybe only 6 or so extremely Old Boy,
trustworthy right-wing columnists/pundits were given the original Plame
scoop (George Will was probably one), but after Novak bit and published
the plant, Rove went to speed dial in an attempt to ramp it up.
The whole thing was planned out from leaking to goosing it up, but it
didn't quite go as expected, because Joe Wilson went on TV and said,
"HEY! What they did was illegal!" Suddenly the phones slammed back into
the cradles and the Rovians said to themselves, "OH SHIT (what have we
done)!"
The alternative reason for Rove working the phones after the leak was that the leaker(s) read Novak's column and then
said "OH SHIT (he wasn't supposed to print that)!" and tried to get as
many outlets to run with it as quickly as possible in an attempt to
blur/overwhelm the criminal nature of the original sourcing.
But Joe headed that tactic off by getting onto TV the next week and
alerting the press not to play along. So the leakers didn't get the
disguising avalance they wanted, and they also probably sat there biting
their nails for a while. They must have been VERY relieved when the
press dropped it like a radioactive potato back in July.
I see this as more subtle
Chris Matthew Andrea Mitchell are people right on the rating cusp.
These cable shows are dependent on an audience of right to center,and to
really piss off conservatives would destroy their careers. So they
won't reveal the source.
Whereas Bill Kristol or George Will might
NEWSWEEK FINGERS MATTHEWS
heheheh.
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