Scottie

by emptywheel

As several folks have pointed out to me, Scottie McC is getting chatty:

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem.  It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself. -from What Happened

I'm not really going to hold my breath that this contains any new revelations. But I am intrigued by one thing: the mention of Andy Card, Bush's Chief of Staff. We've known that Bush, Cheney, Libby, and Rove were intimately involved in this gig. But if we can pull Andy Card in--something Ted Wells alluded to during the trial--it might get interesting.

And, just as a reminder, Card and Scottie left the White House within a week of each other--both happening just before Turdblossom's final grand jury appearance.

Again--not holding my breath. Just saying.

Comments

[lemondloulou]

Beam me up.

[Pfunk]

empytwheel
shut up. seriously. just shut the f up. I am sick and tired of reading that you think you know or have a handle on every single thing that comes out of washington.

you aren't a reporter. you don't call anyone to try and chase down leads. you don't deserve a press credential. that's why you were denied. you want to have the luxury of reaping all the benefits of a journalist without doing any of the work.

you're annoying.

[Jeff]

I am going to be predictable, but I guess I find the mention of Bush more intriguing than Card, who Libby in his grand jury testimony told us rebuffed his efforts to get himself cleared by McClellan. Obviously, it's possible there's some other dimension to Card's role. But we didn't really know that Bush was intimately involved in the fall 2003 process of pubilcly clearing first Rove and then Libby, except that one of the most intriguing tidbits at Libby's trial was one of the defense lawywer's contention (outside the presence of the jury) that Bush was a part of the chain of actors involved in the public clearing process in fall 2003. This appeared to be news to Fitzgerald, which made it extra-interesting. Beyond that, what do we know?

I also have to say I think in retrospect what I believe I guessed at the time of Card's departure, that it signaled that the White House had gotten a strong indication from the special prosecutor that Rove was likely off the hook; and I am sort of inclined to think that that was the expectation in bringing in Rove that last time before the grand jury.

[Pfunk]

and this guy, jeff, can you stop writing long ass diatribes for christ sake. you're just as annoying

[Pfunk]

Jeff. you're a guesser. And for that you should shut up

[Jeff]

Hey Pfunk, did you ever hear the story about how Robert Novak's old partner Rowly Evans got punked during Iran-contra and ended up publishing information that some really prominent figure either had been or was about to be indicted, when that was in fact not the case? I'm totally serious. It's really remarkable. You can look it up in Walsh's old book, I think, Firewall. Or else it's in Draper's book. But I'm completely serious, that's what happened. It's remarkable.

[Pfunk]

uh. Ok then. Whatever.

Just shut up already

[Frank Probst]

What a cute little new troll!

As for Scottie, I'll file this under "NOW you tell us." Still, I'm curious. I wonder if anyone on Scottie's list will bother responding to the fact that their former White House spokesman just called them big fat liars.

[Rayne]

They must have fired Jodi and brought out another kind of minder this time, yes? Or a disgruntled former member of the media who's lost their press pass to the Prettyman...

Refresh my memory about 1x2x6, I don't have your holographic capacity, EW...does this provide additional validation of the 1x2x6's composition? (seems like there were so many combinations and permutations at one point that I gave up keeping them straight.)

And yes, the bit about POTUS is intriguing; why the hell would Scotty drop that one now? shouldn't he still be propping up that gauzy veil of plausible deniability?

[Pfunk]

shut up

just

shut up. you friggin whack jobs. listen to yourselves. you're pathetic

[...]

clearly Pfunk is in a funk and won't be shutting up any time soon.. nor will he take his own advice, lol.

[bmaz]

The vacuum of empty space abounds in the universe; apparently a mind containing a healthy quotient of it has randomly dropped by for a visit. How fortunate...

[Dismayed]

Pfunk - a perfect argument for universal health care. Somewhere a prescription went unfilled - or unwritten. Hello, hotel california, we need one more bed.

[JGabriel]

Actually, Marcy, we've all known the president was involved in the Plame coverup, but I think this is the first time anyone on the White House staff, in a position to know, has implicated Bush directly.

Please correct me if I'm wrong - but if I'm right, that's pretty big news. Or should be, anyway.

[sona]

Somewhat OT but did anybody watch Amy Goodman’s interview with Adrian Levy on Democracy Now (Mon 19 Nov)? Pretty explosive stuff. http://www.democracynow.org/streampage.pl

I had picked up bits and pieces of what Levy had to say from other sources but didn’t realise the extent of US complicity in nuclear proliferation. Do watch it if you can. A rerun of Valerie Plame Wilson at an earlier time by the same players - Cheney, Addington, Libby, etc. Only that time the CIA protected its own from a vicious smear campaign.

[&y]

Jeff the "guesser" wrote: …ended up publishing information that some really prominent figure either had been or was about to be indicted, when that was in fact not the case…

Nice! If I'm following you correctly here, I think that's a pretty good guess.

---------------

Scotty's ghost writer wrote: I had unknowingly passed along false information.

As opposed to all those other times.

[Rayne]

&y -- agreed, a good guess by Jeff. I can't think of any other "angry ghost" with as much motivation.

Very much in need of exorcism, too.

[JohnJ]

It looks like that post at FDL yesterday about the State Department sending out new trolls was more domestic than promised. That just confirms two things: The only enemies that the Bush Mafia cares about are domestic; and the intellectual level of this troll matches the typical level of competency of this cabal's hires and supporters.

[sojourner]

I am really intrigued that someone has directly implicated the POTUS in the coverup now. And, maybe McClellan is stating the obvious, but it sounds like he is trying to cover his own rear end. Perhaps he is applying for a new job, or had figured out that once you are involved with these people that the slime and stench does not wash off.

Judging from the comments of the new resident troll, it sounds like something must really be hitting close to home. You can almost judge that by the amount of vehemence they exude...

[BlueStateRedhead]

Is it OT to ask how is everyone preparing for the biggest eating/traveling/ and especially family political discussing days of the year?
I am in NYC, so Rudy is no problem. All I have to say is "more days at Yankee Stadium than at Ground Zero," and "you can look it up"* in the Village Voice, and the band stops playing.
I also need some good anti-anti-Hillary on the basis of character answers to get me through my eating/family discussing. Basis of positions, I can handle.
* Yogi Berra, ergo Yankee, ergo true in my NYC family.
Suggestions?

[emptypockets]

re: "No new revelations": But to hear it like this from McLellan will make it a new revelation for many audiences, no?

[BlueStateRedhead]

While talking about feeding, how about not feeding the troll? Must admit, he is so good at it it makes me miss Jodi's efforts at argument. But as there is none here, no reason to argue.

Bye bye pfunk.

[b]

"Pfunch and Jodi". lol

.

[freepatriot]

if that's the shit stain's replacement, the repuglitards must be recruiting their new members on the playground during recess

but ya gotta give the guy credit. must have been hard to learn to read with such a low IQ

I thing the repuglictards are really scraping the bottom of the barrel where these trolls are concerned

I was popping off on-liners at the freepi on kkkarl's newsweek article, and some putz was so distraught that he tried to insult my mother

the mouth breathers are being reduced to the most insane extreemes to disrupt the growing wave of revulsion that is overwhelming the repuglitard party, and their efforts just swell the wave

disaster accomplished

bye bye repuglitard party

[radiofreewill]

I'll bet Karl cinched-up Scottie's astronaut diapers before every press conference and gave him a pep-talk about who to believe and what to say.

Then, after each press conference, Karen Hughes changed his astronaut diapers, powdered his bottom, and put Scottie back down in the crib room of the West Wing.

"What Happened" shouldn't be a long book, but once it's clear just how 'out of the loop' Scottie was, it ought to be re-titled to "What Happened While I was Sucking My Thumb?" with a Sub-title of "Someone Please Tell Me - I was Only the Press Secretary."