Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
Judge Reggie is back in the news today, granting, in part, Steven Hatfill’s pursuit of journalists’ sources for information that he was the main subject of the FBI’s anthrax investigation. Walton required the journalists themselves to give up their sources, but not the media companies.
Based on the foregoing analysis, the plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Further Testimony from Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Allan Lengel, Toni Locy, and James Stewart [D.E.
Jeebus. Yesterday’s departure press conference was unnecessarily weepy. But this is embarrassing.
The most useless speculation today in Washington is whom White House chief of staff Josh Bolten might choose to replace Karl Rove. He is genuinely irreplaceable.
The whole column is steeped in deep resentment, resentment of those Republicans who have suggested that getting rid of Rove will help the Administration.
Rove was a principal target of congressional Democrats even beforeFebruary 2005, when
Funny. In the entire Peter Baker article entitled, “Rove: Departure Unrelated to Investigations,” Peter Baker never once quotes Rove as saying, “my departure is unrelated to the multiple investigations in my conduct.” Or anything similar. Sure, Rove talks a lot about Ahab and Moby Dick.
“I realize that some of the Democrats are Captain Ahab and I’m thegreat white whale,” he said.
Remember this photo? This particular version is from Stephen Crowley of the New York Times–it’s part of a slideshow they’ve got up to commemorate the demise of Turdblossom. Go look through the slideshow and tell me whether you think they’re emphasizing the centrality of scandal to Rove’s tenure (there’s a hot picture of Rove and Luskin in there, for example, walking out of Prettyman).
Good thing Rove resigned and finally distracted me from my FISA focus, huh? And in the process of looking up something relating to Rove, I noticed these two letters between Conyers and the RNC (and the RNC’s lawyer) regarding documents it won’t turn over. Most of these documents fall into “category one;” that is, documents the White House has asserted privilege over.
I’ve laid out some possible reasons for Rove’s resignation here. But I’d like to do a close reading of the WSJ story associated with the announcement, partly because I think it so fascinating that Rove would feel the need to pitch his own successes and failures on his way out the door.
The Investigations
Far and away the most interesting comment in the article, though, is this self-assessment from Rove:
His biggest error, Mr.
By now you’ve heard the news: Rove is stepping down. So here’s my treatment of possible reasons why he’s leaving, in reverse order of their likelihood:
Time with the Family
As he said to the WSJ, he wants to spend more time with this family. Of course, this is a load of horse puckey–if he had wanted to spend time with his family, he surely would have done it before his son went
Yup, still mono-focused on FISA, but mr. emptywheel is clamoring for dinner, so maybe once I step away from the computer, I’ll remember all the other things I’ve been meaning to write on.
I want to object to the way Kevin Drum is referring to the new details of FISA:
Originally, FISA allowed warrantless wiretapping of anycommunication between two foreigners.
I’m still working through AGAG’s answers to a bunch of questions the Senate Judiciary Committee asked him last year (he only answered early this year). There’s an exchange involving Russ Feingold that is, I think, very instructive for understanding the recent FISA amendment.
You indicated at the hearing that the Administration has agreed to “submit†the program to the FISA court to rule on it if Congress passes the bill the Administration
I’m working on a massive post on how the Administration has gamed the system to sustain their wireless wiretapping program. For the moment, though, I’d like to make a discrete point about the aborted Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) inevstigation into the program.
When Senator Spector asked Alberto Gonzales last year why BushCo refused to give OPR the clearance to investigate the wireless wiretapping program because OPR included many career employees,