Who leaked Plame's name? Josh Marshall knows...and so will you!

[giantrobot_2000]

It has been revealed! He also names the other recepients of the White House leak!

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_12_28.html#002360

Hopper = Scooter Libby?

[Dookus]

1. Hrmm...

couldn't it also be a reference to Karl Rove, whom Wilson said he'd like to see "frog-marched" out of the WH?

[giantrobot_2000]

2. ...

Could be...

[HereSince1628]

8. Well if hopper was a hint we need to work on that...

frogs do hop, and I'd so dearly love to see Rover gone from government and the campaign.

But I am not sure that's the only possibility.

Scooter refers to moving as much as hopper.

Of course hopper may refer to someone's go'fer, as in grasshopper it could refer to someone's intern or mentee.

I don't know Cheney's or Ari's staffs well enough to know the possibilities.

[Gin]

16. perfect nickname for rove.."Hopper"..lets use it from now on when writing

about him..

[HereSince1628]

21. Yeah and it is just a name...not even a dirty one.

[T Bone]

23. Is Hopper a nickname that Junior has given someone that Marshall

knows about and is revelealing here?

I bet it is.

[alcuno]

9. Interesting conclusion.

Maybe it's one of *'s cutsie nicknames for someone.

[DrBB]

30. Hopper, Jumper, Skipper, Scooter....

TPM was one of the sources that changed my mind about the perp. I figured-- not purely out of wishful thinking--that it was Rove, too. But consider: whoever done it had to have reason to know who Plame was. And it was Cheney and Scooter, not the Chimp or Rove, who werer hanging out in Langley, trying to get the crew to give them the answers they wanted on Iraq and WMD. Entirely logical that Plame--whose area was WMD--would have been a face at those meetings. Cheney wouldn't have been so un-cagey as to actually make the call, have his fingerprints on anything, but it had to be someone high enough to meet the term-of-art qualifications for "senior administration official." Scooter fits.

Then of course Rove gave it his little "fair game" push. So he may well face an indictment. But I bet it gets to the cut-out, Scooter, and he falls on his sword and that's where they try to put an end to it.

"We're saddened and shocked that his excess zeal for the president's mission and the safety of the American public led him into a momentary lapse of judgment." I'm sure we'll hear that--if it ever gets to that point--from pundits of the "left" as well as the right. Listening Colmes? There's your line, boy.

[blm]

3. Scooter Libby was my first suspicion.

With Rove's urging.

[Fridays Child]

19. That pretty much implicates the big-time dick, then.

Isn't Scooter Dickie's hired gun?

[snippy]

4. Interesting but I wish he could just name names.

This type of statement annoys me:

It's always been more or less an open secret who the perps are in this case. And they're very high-level folks -- people with deep influence of the formulation and implementation of policy.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_12_28.html#002360

If it is an open secret, someone should just tell the American people.

[private_ryan]

5. unless you're 100% sure

you can't -- or shouldn't -- accuse people of comiting felonies.

[snippy]

7. He sounds sure.

Your "100% sure" standard would empty nearly all prison cells.

[Jacobin]

31. The standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt"

I agree. I don't think we have to have a jury convict someone to have a discussion about members of the Bush Crime Family. Besides, OJ did it.

[giantrobot_2000]

6. ...

Apparently, everyone in the media in Washington knows. It's a small clique of Kool Kids.

[bobbieinok]

12. 'open secret' - 'everyone knows'

EXCEPT the American people who must be protected.

Just like it was an 'open secret' that Newt was having a long-term affair with a congressional intern (now his 3rd wife) all the time he was being so holy about Clinton and Lewinsky.

I was just infuriated when I heard this.

It's so kewl to be in the know and join with all your friends to keep secrets from the people.

[MrPrax]

14. Excellent point...

Who is playing who?

The internet is full of a lot of things (someone said it is the 'Vanity Press of the Insane')

So this is still a secret?

[librechik]

10. there were 2 leakers

who else?

[alcuno]

11. Someone started the ball rolling and it's apparent that Rove was

egging it on with his "Wilson's wife is fair game" comment.

[snippy]

33. Marshall has referred to Rove, Libby and Abrams on at least two occasions.

From January 01, 2004:

Back on October 9th and 10th I told you that Scott McClellan's denials that Rove, Libby and Abrams were the perps wasn't nearly as air-tight as they seemed, that it was basically a non-denial denial. But no one seemed to catch on.

Now they're coming clean. Again, from Mike Allen's piece in the Post ...

When White House press secretary Scott McClellan was being barraged with questions about the case this fall, he said repeatedly that he knew of no Bush aides who had "leaked classified information." McClellan would not answer questions about the ethics or propriety of encouraging reporters to write about Plame.

"The subject of this investigation is whether someone leaked classified information," McClellan said. Another time, he said, "The issue here is whether or not someone leaked classified information." McClellan left open the possibility that White House aides had discussed Plame with the media. "You all talk about what's in the news, I talk about what's in the news, people always talk about what's in the news," he said.

A senior administration official said Bush's aides did not intend to mount a legalistic defense, but two GOP legal sources who have discussed the case with the White House said the careful, consistent wording of McClellan's statements was no accident.

"If they could have made a broader denial, they would have," said a lawyer who is close to the White House. "But they seem to be confident they didn't step over the legal line."

So let's stop the charade. They're guilty as sin. It's now crystal clear that from the very beginning the folks at the White House have known who did it. And pretty clearly the president didn't see anything wrong with it, or didn't care, because he didn't try to do anything about it.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_12_28.html#002360 (emphasis added).

My initial reaction to the statement "They're guilty as sin." was that it was referring to Rove, Libby and Abrams. But then I thought it probably referred to "the folks at the White House." Maybe it refers to both.

And from October 10, 2003:

Recently I told you that Scott McClellan's denial on behalf of Abrams, Libby and Rove might be a lot less airtight than a lot of reporters have been assuming.

The question is whether one or more of these three men was the source for Bob Novak's column disclosing Valerie Plame's identity as a clandestine employee of the CIA.

McClellan's 'denials' have hinged on a lawyerly and off-point claim that they were "not involved in leaking classified information."

Listen closely: He's not answering the question.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_10_05.html#002069

[Cocoa]

13. It looks like he says he doesn't know

but Marshall makes what I think is the most important points, that criminality is not the issue, and that the press has already failed us completely.

[alcuno]

17. I think they ALL know.

It's probably the most widely held "secret" in DC. Everyone knows except for the citizenry.

[snippy]

24. I agree.

[Octafish]

15. FOUND: Picture of the Perp!

Plame was outed on orders of this man!
A.K.A. The Little Turd from Crawford.



Ten Gallon Hat on a Five-Gallon Head.

Remember: When it comes to frog-marching, leave no turd behind![/i

[DrBB]

18. All hat, no cowpoke

Of course the technical term--so I'm told, not being a Texan myself--is "goat roper."

[demgrrrll]

20. Someone mentioned in Atrios comments that JM purposely mentioned

Russert, Broder and Will because they were the journalists who were called on this story. That makes sense, why else would you single out those three people?

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Plus Andrea Mitchell

and Novak, that makes five. Who's the sixth?

[demgrrrll]

26. Broder, Will, Russert, Novak, Matthews, Mitchell? That would be my

guess.

[DoYouEverWonder]

27. Here's an interesting take on the 'journalists '

who are also members of 'the Likudnik war party'. This whole scandal is going to open up some very interesting cans of worms, the role of the press in carry out this misadministration's agenda. This may be why the media is trying so hard to ignore this one. Too many of them just might end up doing perp walks too?



http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2003/oct/oct02.html

[MGKrebs]

28. Is "George" George Will or

George Stephanopolous?

[demgrrrll]

32. That's a good point, I automatically assumed Will for some reason.

He would be a little bit more reliable pub mouthpiece but who knows!

[are_we_united_yet]

22. "Ten Gallon Hat on a Five-Gallon Head."

Any guesses on brain volume?

[Rose Siding]

29. Why wouldn't obstruction be an issue?

He talks of beating the rap because they didn't know she was covert. Whether that is true or NOT, once the investigation began, isn't it obstructionist not to come out with what happened?

[revcarol]

34. Somehow we are assuming that the one(s) who knew about her covert status

were the ones who contacted the press. You forgot about the cut-out.

Cheney/Scooter know from living at Langley so much, and they tell someone just enough to interest them in being the person who contacts the reporters, and not enough for that person to know that this isn't just another ordinary CIA bureaucrat.

[snippy]

35. Very good point.

[Must_B_Free]

36. Don't get suckered, folks

they are using Marshall to float this trial balloon. That's how the kinder, gentler fascism works. Everything is pretested in a vacuum so he results are predictable.

They are offering Scooter's head on the platter and saying "is this good enough?"

For a lower like Libby, he could milk this plank walking Ollie North / Mark Furhman style.

Besides, we already knew it was two people making the calls. It was either Cheney and Libby or Rove and Libby in likelihood. They are trying to sacrifice the small fry to save the bigger fry.

[KoKo]

37. I like Josh Marshall, but he often "teases" too much. And, he supported

the war on Iraq. I read him, but with a teaspoon of salt, because even though he was the most active of "journalists" on interviewing Wilson and keeping on top of the story, imho, none of the Washington Establishment can be trusted. So, I read Josh and love his blog. But, I don't believe for a minute that I know which "dog of his is in the hunt."