Reply #49: Martin shows Cheney considerably involved in the details of the whole thing, writing talking

[Garbo 2004]

points, what to say to the media for not just Libby but also Ari Fleischer IIRC, orchestrating the response to Wilson's op ed.

Libby's defense is that Wilson & "the wife" were nothing to him, he was far to busy with really important things to bother with the Wilsons. Hence he didn't remember what he knew, what several people told him. Yet here's Martin showing that it the Wilsons were very important to Cheney and thus also Libby, clipping newspapers, making transcripts of tv talk shows. The Vice President of the United States giving written instructions to senior aides on what to say to the press? Put together with other testimony and docs, it appears the OVP was obsessed with Wilson and how to respond to his allegations. Cheney and Libby. (Libby's own grand jury testimony told of how Cheney specifically instructed him to meet with Judy Miller and reveal classified info on July 8.)

Martin's testimony is one part of a portrait Fitzgerald is creating for the jury. There is and will be other testimony. There also are documents from the OVP, both Cheney's and Libby's. To date, her testimony while bolstering the "what Libby knew and when did he know it" basics (and Libby's own notes indicate Cheney had told him of Plame around June 12 so that Libby knew Wilson's wife worked for the CIA is not news) goes beyond that and gives a glimpse of how consumed Cheney was with Wilson.

Her testimony is very bad for Cheney IMO, not just Scooter.

An interesting note: "Emptywheel," one of the live bloggers at the trial, noted during jury selection that David Shuster of MSNBC raised an intriguing possibility and she perhaps presciently speculated:

January 18, 2007
A Really Good Reason to Call Dick, Part Two
by emptywheel

David Shuster is stumped. Is it possible, he asks, that a witness will contradict Dick's testimony?

Libby lawyer Ted Wells then said, “Vice President Cheney will be a witness in this case. If his testimony is contradicted by another witness, who you don’t know or have no feelings about, would your feelings about the vice president make it difficult for you to fairly evaluate the credibility of the vice president?”

What was Libby’s lawyer referring to? Is there a witness who will undermine the Vice President?

Shuster goes on to say there is no hint of such a witness in all the filings.

Despite all of the pre-trial filings, documents, and evidence released...this is the first time such a suggestion has been made in the CIA leak case.

In the filings, perhaps. But I've made such a suggestion, guessing (and it is a guess, mind you) that Cheney is being called to discredit one of Fitzgerald's most important witnesses, Cathie Martin.

It was clear as early as last March that two of Fitzgerald's most important witnesses are Cathie Martin and Ari Fleischer. Fleischer we believe to be the immunized witness. Libby has already laid groundwork to suggest that Ari testified to save his own ass.

But Martin may not be so easy to impeach. And if, as Murray's latest seems to say, the July 12 conversation aboard Air Force Two is really incriminating, then Libby's team needs to find a way to discredit Martin. Moreover, she was a witness to Libby's conversation with Cooper.

So I think it very likely that Cheney will come in and say that Martin's version of events is a bunch of baloney. Particularly given the way Wells described this hypothetical witness: "who you don’t know." Martin is, after all, the least known central witness in this case.

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/01/a_really_good_r.html
link to Shuster's blog: http://hardblogger.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/18/36260.aspx

In the portrait Fitzgerald is creating for the jury, Martin's testimony IMO places Cheney deeply involved to the point of writing talking points, what senior aides should say to the media. Amazing. The Vice President of the United States himself providing scripts for staff to use with the media. Talk about a hands on kinda guy. Just in case anyone is tempted to think Libby, Cheney's loyal acolyte and right hand man, just turned rogue and went off on his own.

Fitz has considerable evidence from various sources that Libby already knew about Plame long before he claims he "forgot" he knew...Martin just corroborates that. But beyond that she provides a rare glimpse into the lair of the Cheney and how hands on involved he was regarding the Wilson matter and feeding the press info. What may come of it, who knows, but one can hope....