Talking Points Memo - July 13, 2005
Okay, we're getting pretty amazing reports about veritable bamboozlement typhoons sweeping across several of the evening chat shows. We hear that Hardball was probably the worst, with a series of ridiculous claims by Ken Mehlman and later Ed Rogers. If you watched, please let us know what you saw and heard. We've set up this special discussion thread to chronicle the bamboozlement on this evening's show.
Ouch! The AP gets reeled in after chomping down hard on the GOP bamboozle bait. We join the unfortunate moment in progress (emphasis added) ...
Still, Charles Black, a longtime GOP strategist, predicts Rove will survive."It's good fodder for a feeding frenzy. And Democrats are pouncing on Karl because they fear and hate him. But, based on what we know that Karl did, there's nothing wrong with that," Black said.
Fox News runs with new bamboozlement line ...
Cooper's e-mail said Rove warned him away from the idea that Wilson's trip had been authorized by CIA Director George Tenet or Vice President Dick Cheney."He gave proper guidance to a reporter who got disinformation in a leak" meant to assign responsibility to Cheney, former Bush aide Ed Rogers told FOX News.
Karl Rove, anti-leak warrior.
A TPM Reader frames it very nicely: Is the president going to stand by his word or stand by his man?
Emerging Bamboozlement Alert!
Newt throws lifeline to Rove and W.! Katie Couric mans the deck!
In his appearance this morning on the Today Show Newt Gingrich said: "The president's been pretty clear: if somebody's broken the law they will be fired. The question is whether or not, uh, what karl did was in any way breaking the law."
(July 13, 2005 -- 02:54 PM EDT // link // print)
John Kerry responds to Rick Santorum's claim that Massachusetts liberalism is the cause of pedophilia and priest abuse of minors ...
"The families of Massachusetts soldiers who have given their lives for their country in Iraq know more about the mainstream American values of Massachusetts than Rick Santorum ever will.
Late Update: Okay, I have nothing to add. But Sen. Kennedy does.
(July 13, 2005 -- 01:19 PM EDT // link // print)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-WH) speaks out!
"My Democratic friends would be doing the nation a great service if they spent half as much time getting legislation passed that will benefit the country as they do in attacking Karl Rove. When you're out of ideas and lack vision, you are left with nothing but personal attacks and negativity. We have enough to do in the Senate in minding our own business than to be sticking our noses into someone else's business. Everyone needs to cool the rhetoric, focus on the business of the people, and allow the investigation to run its course."
Late Update: This clip from an April 2005 article in The Forward suggests Norm Coleman knows who his daddy is ..."In 2001, Rove disrupted Pawlenty's plans to run for the Senate against the late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone. Rove was backing Norm Coleman, who was elected in 2002, and Pawlenty ran for governor instead."
Even Later Update: Another golden oldie from Sen. Coleman (R-WH), this one from October 1st, 2003: "What we're hearing is a little rank political hypocrisy when it comes to claims about a special prosecutor, and I also want to note, the president of the United States has been very, very, very clear. If someone in his administration leaked information or did something that is illegal, they will be held accountable."
(July 13, 2005 -- 12:24 PM EDT // link // print)
Too much hilarity!
Yesterday, Karl Rove protege and RNC chairman Ken Mehlman sent out an anti-Joe Wilson smear sheet in an effort to throw a lifeline to his mentor.
As we've now mentioned several times, one of his claims is that Wilson was caught lying when he claimed Cheney had sent him to Niger -- something which, of course, he never said.
You too can be part of the rough and tumble with the GOP slime and spin machine!
On show after show this week, Republican bamboozlers like Newt Gingrich, Ken Mehlman and others are going on the air and spouting the most ridiculous lies. But in most cases their talking head interlocutors don't call them on it. One example among many is the GOP claim that Wilson lied when he claimed Cheney had either sent him to Africa or 'authorized' his trip. Of course, as we noted below, Wilson never said any such thing. It's just one more made up story.
Gingrich enlisted in the lie and smear campaign! The Old Bulls suit up to spout the Mehlman bull! More soon!
A TPM T-Shirt to the first person who can find me a transcript of Gingrich on the Today show this morning!
Another TPM Reader checks in ...
You're overlooking something HUGE in Novak's quote
Re-read the following quote: "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."
And then compare that with the Rove testimony (and right-wing noise machine) claiming that Rove, at least, did not supply Plame's name to Cooper et al.
The comedy still doesn't end!
Wall Street Journal headline: "Karl Rove, Whistleblower."
On the other hand, can you blame them? Most of the kids there want White House jobs or other GOP-based promotions.
Larry Johnson is a retired CIA officer who was a classmate of Valerie Plame's when both entered the CIA in the mid-1980s. Johnson just did a guest post over at TPMCafe in which he explains the damage that was done when administration officials revealed Plame's identity, who's lying and who's not.
posted by Dictynna @ 8:31 PM
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