emptywheel’s Scott McClellan Series:
emptywheel is focusing on the period shortly after the announcement that the outing of Valerie Plame would be investigated in late September and early October 2003. It was during the time when Scott McClellan was being told by both Karl Rove and Scooter Libby that they were not involved in the leak. After exonerating Rove, Libby lobbied for a similar clean bill of health. He spoke to Cheney who wrote the famous annotation:
Later, McClellan got a call from Andy Card [after speaking to the President and Vice President] instucting him to call reporters and issue a strong denial for Libby like the one he had done for Rove already [I’m still intrigued by this note. Cheney implies in this note that Bush was responsible for Libby’s activities in leaking the N.I.E. and perhaps Plame "because of the incompetence of others." I still wonder what incompetence? Which others?]. During this period, everyone denies involvement – Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby. And McClellan was the messenger of their innocence. As it turned out, all four were beyond involved, they were the movers and shakers of the plan to discredit Joseph Wilson.
As emptywheel combs through McClellan’s book and interviews from her unique perspective of knowing all things Plame, the question at hand is can Scott McClellan add something that might make the details of this little plot clear enough to finally pin the tail on the donkeys – preferrably the Bush and Cheney Donkeys. What crimes are available to pin? Perjury, Obstruction of Justice, and knowingly revealing the identity of a Secret Agent. Outside of the criminal area, I suppose making the full truth public would get high marks. But I don’t know if McClellan is going to be enough. He was being lied to just like the rest of us. Even back then, he was on our side of the fence. We still need someone from their side of the fence.
And it’s still unclear what fact would open the door to some aspect of their dirty little deed that would make it of interest to John Q. Public and awaken him to the full impact of the BushCo con job.
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