Par for the course. The corporate media will find any excuse to shill. This seems to be part of a well orchestrated move to reinforce that the consiprators have got away and there is nothing left of the Fitz investigation and all is clear on the western front. And no crimes have been committed. Notice that Rove is back to his propaganda ways on the speaking circuit and running the Fall camapign for the Repubs to retain their congressional majority.

i agree with Frank that the AP story might represent a shift in the coverage. We’ll see. But just to add to the outrage, not only is it not news that Harlow discussed Plame with Novak, it is even less newsworthy than the fact that Rove was Novak’s source, since this in fact is the first time that Novak has confirmed publicly that Rove was his source, while Novak himself has discussed – and discussed more extensively – his contact with Harlow. So it’s not even news that Novak is saying on the record that Harlow was someone he talked about Plame with. To say nothing of the fact that Harlow was not one of Novak’s two senior administration offical anyway.

Have any of you actually ready the original article of Novak’s? Especially where he says that he got Plame’s name from Wilson’s paid entry into ’Who’ who in America’ and that Rove was the ’confirming’ source not the ’primary’ source? Some of you people will believe everything you read in the lame-street drive-by media…
Go to the source! Not someone else’s version…

Emptywheel, you have proved my point. Reread your ’article’ and see how many times you add your own opinions and speculations…

Having been worked into a frenzy and then short-changed on the promised scoop, the media has so far reacted by looking for a scoop, any scoop, even if it’s a recycled scoop. When do you get angry for being misled?

Great point, but the answer to the question is probably never.

Funny how Novak doesn’t quite come out and say who was the first person to tell him that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA… and specifically, whether he already knew that when he spoke to the primary-source-presumed-to-be-FleischerArmitage.

If he’s such a free man and is going to be all over the media today, maybe someone could ask him.

windje

No, I think you’re right to watch Novak’s parsing. He’s a master parser. I’m most struck by his â€I interpret.†He may be trying to address criticism that, if all Rove said was, â€you’ve heard that too?†then he had no business reporting it–that it doesn’t qualify as a confirmation, according to any known rules of journalism. Or, he could be trying to parse knowing that Rove said something qualitative about Plame, but Novak has downplayed that.

Saving Novak and Rove
Here is a post with a title. hm

I think Novak is trying to ease the burden he has carried these long three years since the articles he published setting the vortex into motion. If it is true he has no income sourced from the prominent defense funds such as the telephone bank jammer or the indicted chief of staff from the VP’s office, he makes his eloquent diclaimers now and basks as the responsibility for the smear becomes diffuse.

I looked a bit at the origin of IIPA. It came from very turbulent times when some intelligence agency people who sought to help proletarian demonstrator politicos in the US were brought into a very narrow definition of illegal behavior with passage of IIPA. It originated as a conservative legislative construct. It would be peculiar if the very specificity of the current smear were to result in netting a few paleopartisans. I would imaging Novak having written opEds at the time in support of IIPA. We have good lawyers in our company who know best about these matters.

I hope the seeming new life in congressional committees recently is an awakening. There is so much to know, though, the seal appears on the Novak exoneration until at least January 2007, which is probably the motive for the amorphous exculpations now. If Rove and Novak are immune now and if they were central to how the smear initialized, they are sure to be much more contented over these next few months.

Many parallel threads are ongoing, especially this week, but those will wait until the germane diary post appears. KX is tracing, and helping lead in some of these.

Let;s not forget Novak’s big shout-out to Karl: â€They already knew.â€