Thursday, February 08, 2007

Poor New York Times

Oh, my poor, poor friends at the Times. They just SO much want to run that headline about Cheney's impeachment ("Now I'll show you how a Republican dies") that they just can't hold it back. Titillation indeed.

The grand jury tapes offered a titillating, occasionally entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Mr. Libby said he told the vice president, while both were in Wyoming, that “it was unfair” that the White House had not corrected reports that he had leaked Mrs. Wilson’s name to the columnist Robert Novak, who disclosed it a column in July 2003.
“It should be fixed,” Mr. Libby said he told Mr. Cheney.
“I was not the person who talked to Mr. Novak and leaked this bit,” Mr. Libby is heard to say in a soft, even voice. “You know,” Mr. Libby said he told Mr. Cheney, “I learned this from Tim Russert.”
At that, Mr. Cheney tilted his head. “The Tim Russert part got his attention,” Mr. Libby said.
Although the audiotapes were played by the prosecution, they also recalled -- this time in Mr. Libby’s own voice -- assertions by Mr. Libby’s lawyers in the trial’s opening arguments that their client was made a scapegoat by White House officials determined to protect Mr. Rove at all costs. (Mr. Wilson has said he suspects Mr. Rove of having something to do with disclosing his wife’s identity in revenge for his article in The Times.)
At one point in his grand jury testimony, Mr. Fitzgerald asked Mr. Libby why he was smiling. Because, Mr. Libby replied, a line of questioning had just reminded him that Mr. Cheney did weigh in on his behalf.
“It looks like he was trying to protect me a little bit, which is nice,” Mr. Libby said.
He recalled during their meeting in Wyoming Mr. Cheney saying, “I know you were not the leak, not the source,” and pledging to make the necessary phone calls to the White House publicity machine to that effect.
Later in his conversation with the vice president, though, Mr. Libby recalled telling him that, after his memory was refreshed by looking at internal documents, he concluded he had learned about Mrs. Wilson from from Mr. Cheney himself and not Mr. Russert.
“From me?” Mr. Cheney replied, tilting his head again. After considerably more back-and-forth, Mr. Libby testified, the vice president said, “Fine.”
Then Mr. Cheney raised his hand in a gesture that Mr. Libby said he interpreted as, “You know, we shouldn’t be talking about the details of this.”
Recalling the events of that autumn of 2003, Mr. Libby noted that he was giving a true account “if memory serves -- and it doesn’t always.”


If you want, you know, actual news about what, you know, actually happened, you'll have to read it here.

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