It seems to me that Joe Wilson wants to have it both ways. He wanted on the one hand, to go public with his disagreement with the Adminstration on the "yellowcake" issue. He wanted to have the vaunted position as "dissenter in chief." He wanted to have a position within the hoped-for Kerry administration based upon his "credentials" as a bona fide, in-the-know operative. Yet he seems to be insisting that any scrutiny pertaining to him be somehow "shielded" from telling the details about how he got his gig, how he reported his findings, and how he arrived at his conclusions (which changed from interview to interview).

And now the reports that he blabbed about his wife to anyone who would listen seem to indicate that he was attempting to further his political ambitions by piggybacking his credentials upon his wife's position within the CIA. He simply cannot have it both ways. If he felt that his wife was a means towards his political objectives, then he was willing to use that affiliation to advance his agenda. Then, when things went "public" about his wife, he seems to want to use her "outing" as a shield to protect him from objective analysis of his operational failures to dig up the dirt about Iraq and their alleged attempts to seek to buy yellowcake uranium.

That Valerie Plame's position within the CIA didn't matter when HE made it known, yet somehow trangressed the law when OTHERS made it known seems to be beyond the scope of credibility. Given that Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame didn't have any problem posing for the front cover of Vanity Fair, but somehow seem "victimized" by her alleged "outing" goes far beyond whatever script that Hollywood could manufacture. Their selective outrage and the acquiescence and participation of the partisan media speaks volumes for how duplicitous Beltway politics can be...

File this story under "monumental hypocrisy generated by political hacks."

Scooter Libby has retained excellent legal representation. When all is said and done, he ought to go after Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame for all they've got. And according to recent reports, that $2.5 million advance book fee ought to be able to pay for Lewis Libby's legal bills... plus an amount to be determined for the libel and slander involved in the whole sordid affair...

Of course, those witnesses (and I don't know who they are or how reliable they are) have absolutely nothing to do with the perjury charge against Libby.

Libby is being charged with lying to the grand jury. This is merely an attempt to change the subject.

So Team Libby's big defense strategy is to show that Joe Wilson outed his own wife, meaning that...what? Scooter Libby didn't lie about his conversations with reporters? That he had no "motive" to lie about those conversations, and therefore he just "forgot" about them when he was being questioned, first by FBI agents, and then by Fitz?

When you've got the law, you pound on the law. When you've got the facts, you pound on the facts. And when you've got neither the law nor the facts, you pound on the table.

Team Libby is pounding on the table. The only defense they appear to be mounting to the actual charges against Libby is that Libby had no motive to lie when he failed to testify about his conversations about Plame. No motive because he didn't think he was outing a NOC, no motive because she was "peripheral," no motive because Joe Wilson outed her first, no motive because there was nothing wrong in trying to discredit Joe Wilson.

But Libby isn't going to be able to say that he KNEW that Wilson had outed his wife. Remember, his claim was that Tim Russert outed Plame to him. (That's not forgetting, that's fabrication, but whatever.) And none of what Libby's defense team has done or said thus far addresses the obvious motive for his lies: a desire to protect his bosses, Chimpy and Dick.

Sadly, this could get worse. Ambitious Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald seems determined to take out Rove in this investigation. I hope conservatives wake up when this happens to how being a conservative is being criminalized in this country.

"My belief is that Wilson was angling for a spot in a putative Kerry Administration, that Wilson therefore deliberately lied about what he found in Niger"

How can you believe this when history has already shown that the Niger document is an Italian forgery?

The pimp and the prostitute are in for a big fall.

It is indeed an absolutely crucial issue as to whether Plame's affiliation was known outside intelligence circles or not. But I'm still not convinced it was. If Libby has " five witnesses who will testify under oath that former ambassador Joseph Wilson told them that his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, worked for the CIA," that's a very big deal. It would certainly shut me up, that's for sure. More importantly, it would certainly put a big dent in the left wing noise machine. And given that, I wonder why they haven't already come forward. Blame the left if you want, but if these folks are credible, yet still in the shadows, they bear some culpability for this whole circus as well.

To my knowledge, only one person continues to say that Wilson personally told them about his wife's identity: Gen. Vallely. It took him a full two years after the story broke to come forward, and then when he did he's changed his claims a few times. But he still sticks by some of it. Perhaps it's true. Then again, perhaps not. It would be virtually impossible to prove one way or the other. But let's assume Vallely's current story is correct. Considering who Vallely is, it's not like blabbing it to some John Doe. It's not too hard to imagine that Vallely knows quite a bit of classified information.

Anyway, so far as I know, all other reports are of the nature of "I know someone who says Wilson told them". And every time a specific "someone" is identified, that someone denies being told anything.

Finally, and more to the point, one premise of the NRO article that sparked this thread is very clearly false. Blitzer did an interview with Wilson back in October 2005 and asked him the very question at issue: namely, whether he used to waltz her all over Washington and introduce her as "my CIA wife". Wilson's response was, "of course not". Here's a video clip.

Anyway, that's my take on things. Have at me, lol!

No good defense attorney worth his/her salt will throw out evidence to the public at this time to rebut Miss-Gerald's claims of lying. You never tip your hand ahead of time. However, credibility will be a factor, and if I was a defense attorney, I would make the trial against Wilson, a person who had lied to the U.S. Congress.

The case against Libbey is a reach and a waste of money. The pimp and the prostitute will fall.

I may have "outed" her; I can almost say with certainty that I saw her numerous times in the CIA HQ cafeteria. Many times, I'm sure. The guys I work with and I used to sit near one of the entrances to the cafeteria to watch the news on TV, and to watch the people coming to lunch. I was hopint to get a glance of Tenet, and later, Porter Goss. Maybe I'll get to see General Hayden someday.

Geez, I just outed three more. No dessert for me tonight, I'm sure.

Hey, Bo Derek Leonard, watch the name-calling; "Chimpy" and Dick may slap an illegal wiretap on your sorry arse.

Come to think of it, Chimpy and Dick is the answer to the following question:

What are Derek's favourite animal and snack food?

keefer said: "I can almost say with certainty that I saw her [Plame] numerous times in the CIA HQ cafeteria. Many times, I'm sure."

So are you sure or not sure? What level of security clearance did/do you have, keefer? For that matter, what about everyone else in the CIA cafeteria? Did you see any covert agents in there? And regardless of your answer, how sure are you of it? Are there any other identities you want to share with us?

It is time I let you in on a little secret Rico. I have been inside the CIA HQ cafeteria many many times, and I have the utmost clearance for anything. What I am going to tell you may shock you, but I can no longer lie. I am George Bush. President.

Hey "James Whittmore," a reality check: Joe Wilson wasn't sent to Niger to check on any "forged Italian document," he was sent (with help from his wife) to nose around about the Birt intel that Iraq had made inquiries about seeking yellowcake from Niger.

But Wilson actually lied about that, too, claiming that he proved those "Italian documents" were fake. There's only one problem for Joe: the documents weren't produced OR refuted until about 5 months AFTER Wilson's trip.

Congress proved Wilson was a liar; you might also want to read the report on Wilson's testimony before Congress, where he admitted to "a little literary flair" in his nasty little book (translation: more lies). Anyone can look at this long-haired peacock fop with his silly hair and realize he's just a D.C. career bureaucrat -- like his old Clinton chum, Mary McCarthy, the classified document leaker to the Washington Post.

You Democrats are such disgusting, shameless liars, willing to say anything to regain power -- even if it means undermining your country during wartime. You supported ousting Saddam when it was politically expedient, and now you're willing to cut-and-run from Iraq -- thus, Murtha's plan to "redeploy" the troops from Iraq 4,000 miles to Okinawa? And he's your "expert," Madame Pelosi? (And what WAS up with that gunk on her eyelash?)

"James Whittmore"? More like James Witless, yes? Head back to Kos with your tail between your legs. Thus endeth the lesson.

Are liberal Democrats trying to forget about the original issue and the purpose of this entire investigation? ...the liberal Democrat's "outrage" that someone had "outed" Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent!

After spending million of dollars and many months investigating the "outing" there is still no evidence that any crime was committed in this regard. The best Fitzgerald could do was charge Libby with lying and obstruction of justice into a crime that apparently did not happen. Even those charges against Libby remain to be proven in court.

Now, it appears that Joseph Wilson may have been the one telling people that his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, worked for the CIA, a job status that, allegedly, was classified.

So what do we hear now from the liberal Democrats? The big crime now is Libby's alleged lying, not the outing of Plame.

What happened to the outrage over Plame's outing? That's the crime we are investigating and for which we are searching and searching to find that guilty person who did it.

Forget about Libby's alleged lying. The courts will handle that. That's small potatoes compared to Plame's outing.

Let's get back to the real issue... the search for the "real" criminal who outed Plame!

AAR

keefer said: "What I am going to tell you may shock you, but I can no longer lie. I am George Bush. President."

Well, that certainly explains a lot. Lol!

"I hope conservatives wake up when this happens to how being a conservative is being criminalized in this country".....

Oh great, First the war on Christmas, then the war on Christianity (when Tom Delay resigned), now the war on conservatives. Now you're all victims of a conspiracy between lefties and the MSM, with life-long Republican Patrick Fitzgerald leading the movement. Lying to a grand jury is what's a criminal offense, just like it was when Ken Starr criminalized a successful Democratic president with an enormous approval rating and an economic surplus, instead of a huge deficit!

AAR,

The Democrats gave up caring about Plame when journalists started getting called before the grand jury and one went to jail for refusing to name sources. The well oiled leak-machine that they had going, at that point, became endangered. If journalists cannot protect their sources, they will stop pursuing such leaks, papers will stop publishing them and Bush-hating CIA agents will stop leaking. They don't want that. If that happens, how on earth will they bring down Bush? The CIA leaks will dry up.