*ushco strong arming the press. Tweety talks.

[Tinksrival]

This is from Michael Smerconish via HuffPost.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/will-matthews-corroborate_b_9967.html

<snip>

This time he hedged a bit. Here is my literal transcription of what Chris Matthews told me.

“Well, let me just tell you this, without getting into that, because I know the answer generally to your question, is that, because all of this involves testimony that Russert is probably going to have to make, and let me just tell you this, that those people in the White House, especially Libby and the Vice President, working as a team, ‘connected as a root’ to use Libby’s favorite phrase, basically pulled off an Alleyoop play to get us into war in Iraq, by feeding to the New York Times stories about nuclear potential in the hands of Saddam Hussein, to get it into the Sunday paper, and then deploying the Vice President on Meet the Press and other Administration officials like Condi Rice on the other Sunday talk shows in a kinda Alleyoop play. So they put the ball in the air, and then on Sunday mornings, these guys put it in the basket, and then all of a sudden we’re at war over Iraq because a lot of Americans in the middle politically say ‘I don’t know how we’re getting into that mess or why we’re getting in it, but I guess we have to protect ourselves against a mushroom cloud’, that is Condi’s phrase.
So having pulled this masterful move of moving the undecided middle into the war, they then became very sensitive to the charge by Joseph Wilson that they had done the very thing, pushed the nuclear button and then covered up any threat to that nuclear button, and Wilson was that threat, and then, going volcanic against anybody including me, who dared to say ‘Wait a minute, there is a pattern here of how we got into the war, and how they promoted the nuclear case and how they protected the nuclear case against Wilson’.

They didn’t like me doing that, I know that a number of Administration officials were screaming at my network at all levels about me raising this issue, the very points I’ve just made. They don’t like hearing it, Libby is in trouble now because he doesn’t like hearing it, the Vice President is very much a part of this, and the answer to your question is that you are on the right trail, Michael.”

What does all of that mean? To me, at least, that Russert may not have called Matthews immediately after hanging up the phone with Scooter Libby, but he did tell his colleague of that call which does not bode well for Libby.

[Catch22Dem]

1. Very interesting indeed!

[DebJ]

2. "then all of a sudden we’re at war " bu..shit. CNN drumbeats of

war began at least the fall before. By October, my husband and I were making bets on the date of attack. No all of a sudden about it...this was Hitlerian propagandizing, methodical, repetitive, continuous, at it's best...and the MEDIA did it....I hold them MORE responsible then the Bush Admin. The White House Press Corps of 1972-1973 would NOT have done this...

[DebJ]

3. "then all of a sudden we’re at war " bu..shit. CNN drumbeats of

war began at least the fall before. By October, my husband and I were making bets on the date of attack. No all of a sudden about it...this was Hitlerian propagandizing, methodical, repetitive, continuous, at it's best...and the MEDIA did it....I hold them MORE responsible then the Bush Admin. The White House Press Corps of 1972-1973 would NOT have done this...

[C_U_L8R]

4. For Cryin' Out Loud

Tweety has his own frickin TV show....
he is a media personality...
he can say whatever he wants to anybody at anytime
and even if he got canned for it, he would be a national hero.....
and what has he been doing....
(tick tick tick)
sitting on the story of the century and saying NOTHING.
holy freekin mackeral !
how does the man sleep??????

[gumby]

5. Poor Widdle Tweety

Poor Widdle Media.
They all got bamboozled into war because of BASKETBALL ?!?!?!

[pacalo]

6. Here's an excellent post below the article...

Sure says it for me:

I would just like to know one thing...do politicians make it a regular practice of calling up the free press and pressuring them to fall in lock step with their propagnada? Tim Russert should have hung up on Libby right after he reminded him that Mr. Libby's boss is a servant of the people - not the other way around.
Posted by: ourbluenation on November 01, 2005 at 02:34pm