STRANGE ECHOES IN THE CRYPT

STRANGE ECHOES IN THE CRYPT
Big News is Rove is Silent on the Outing of Valerie Plame. His Minions Are Spinning for the Unknowing Revelation Angle, as though that would make him innocent by the letter of the law. And what of  the spirit of the law? Can a man have guilt if he has no conscience? The strange echo in a moral world is that both the truly evil and the pure of heart sleep easily at night.  Whether Rove is pure evil I will leave to others to declaim. Yet more strange echoes in this story are yet to come. The Downing Street Memos look to be a new reverb.  Judith Miller’s silence may take on a new echo soon.

Here is one voice on what many are thinking. POP pops off:

It’s very hard to connect all this to the protection of unnamed sources. How could Miller’s future as a journalist be damaged if she revealed the leaker? It is said that if she reveals this source her future as a journalist would be damaged, because sources would not feel they could trust her. I don’t think so, unless future sources are criminals committing a crime at the time they are talking to her. Why would whistle blowers be afraid to confide in someone who revealed the name of a criminal? I would think it would be just the reverse. I would think that if Ms Miller revealed the leaker’s name she would be viewed as a discerning reporter.[Pissed Off Patricia/Blondesense]

A lot of people have a problem with the Chalabi loving Judy Miller. What we see in her is a strange echo of what a reporter might be, or should be.  Is it the reporter’s role to report “facts,”  to be first with the wrong story?  Or the role of a reporter a sifter of the good and the bad, to presume to discern fact in all the fiction?  The fact right now is many who would ordinarily defend Miller remain silent now because because of her work as fiction writer in the past.

Miller may have other problems. Her silence as the reporter protecting sources rather than herself may be revealed as another fiction.  What strange echoes resound in the crypt.

Fitzgerald may learn more details from Cooper's notes. Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around -- that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee. [WAPO]

For those who missed that, the suggestion there is that Miller or Cooper or some reporter as yet unnnamed may have been the source for the info some government official gave to Novak who gave up Plame’s identity to the world.  Strange echos indeed.   But no sympathy for Judy here.

Tip for Judy: Large swatches of orange can be difficult to carry off if you're not in a perky mood. Tone it down with neutral accessories like a few good pieces of jewelry and a great handbag. [FIREDOG LAKE]

Many are trying to make connections between the moral bankruptcy of the Plame outing with the run up to the war and the truth in the Downing Street Memos. The Heretik has always been of the feeling that Valerie Plame, not husband Joe Wilson was the one getting the spanking in this affair. Letting Joe Wilson eat yellowcake was but a bonus.  By now everyone who cares has read the FOIA letter Congressman Conyers sent to the White House seeking all the information it has.  Good luck on that happening between now and 2006 as the White House believes the law applies to everyone. Everyone except them. 

Bobby has some bark:

Read the letter. It's very businesslike, cogent, and sure to get dismissed by the White House and the right-wing punditry as just more ravings from the loony left. Expect them to portray Mr. Conyers as the Democrats' version of Dan Burton. Expect them to say that Mr. Bush has complete confidence in Mr. Rove and that all of this talk is just old news being ginned up by the partisans on the left to weaken the president. Expect them to do everything except address the questions in the letter. And when they're called on that -- the non-answer answers -- expect them to change the subject. 9/11! [BARK BARK WOOF WOOF]

So what about the woman at the center of this? We hear she is brave. Will we hear the echo of any crying for her soon as a real person, rather than as some straw woman for other interests’ myriad agendas?  What about Valerie Plame?

"This situation has been very hard on her, professionally and personally," said Melissa Boyle Mahle, a former C.I.A. case officer and a friend of Ms. Wilson. "Not only have you removed from the playing field a very knowledgeable counterproliferation officer at a time when we really need her services. But before this she was on a fast track as a candidate for senior management at the agency. With something like this, her career will never recover."
[NY TIMES]

It Is an All Too Common Nightmare in Washington. Real people in Washington are ravaged by monsters daily and their fates are lost in the echoes of spin and distortion. Many a monster lies in the crypt.

RELATED POSTS IN THE MONSTER SERIES:
[THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA]
[THE MONSTER WITHIN]
[MONSTER POLICY]
[MONSTER POLICY PART TWO]
[GEORGE THE ZERO KING]

WHAT THE BLOGS/ONLINE MAGS ARE SAYING

On Rove: Mike Tidmus makes me laugh. . . . OT Pam Spaulding has more Tidmus

. . . . A link to Court's response to Miller from Richard Cranium plus Sukabi at All Spin Zone quotes Cicero re Rove: A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. . . .

. . from Avedon Carol: Must read: Bill Israel's Save the First Amendment--from Karl Rove in E&P, which intros like this: A man who taught with Karl Rove, and considers him a friend, writes that in the Valerie Plame case, Rove is using journalists, and the First Amendment, "to operate without constraint, or to camouflage breaking the law." That's why neither reporters Cooper and Miller, nor their publications, should protect the behavior of Rove (or anyone else) "through an undiscerning, blanket use of the First Amendment that weakens its protections by its gross misuse."

And the article begins: In 99.9 percent of cases I know, journalists must not break the bonds of appropriate confidentiality, to protect their ability to report, and to defend the First Amendment. I've testified in court to that end, and would do so again.

But the Valerie Plame-CIA case that threatens jail time for reporters from Time and The New York Times this week is the exception that shatters the rule. In this case, journalists as a community have been played for patsies by the president's chief strategist, Karl Rove, and are enabling him to abuse the First Amendment, by their invoking it.

The Heretik would add there is a reason he thinks of Rove as The Phantom in this Opera and  Rove's machinations mentioned above are a big reason why.

Comments

[pissed off patricia]

Thank you for the link, Heretik. I knew when I posted my feelings about this that I was probably putting my small behind up as a target. So far we have what I consider to be a great discussion going on, and that's what it's all about, right?

[I'm Right]

I wish Karl Rove would just be a true Christian and stand up, admit his mistakes, appologize to liberals, and ask for forgiveness. Bush too needs to be on his knees asking the lord and the American People and Iraqi People for forgiveness.