Novak Speaks
12 July 2006 7:14 am by Taylor Marsh
UPDATE: Novak earns his Prince of Darkness title. TPM Muckraker has his smear on Murray Waas.
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“Hardball” broke the story yesterday. As I watched it I wondered about the timing. I wasn't the only one.
Human Events
must be loving this. They haven't had so many links since Ann Coulter said something
smart.
Personally, I just love the title of Bob Novak's column: My Role in the
Valerie Plame Leak Story. Nice try, Bob, but your column doesn't even
begin to cover it.
I'll let one of Empty Wheel's updates take it from here.
Why did Novak publish this now, rather than mid-June after Rove learned he
escaped charges?Two possible answers to that question. First, maybe Novak didn't get the
all-clear sign until just now. Maybe there were additional items that Novak
had to clear up. Though that's not really likely if Novak didn't testify after
Libby's indictment.One other possibility, a real wildarsed guess. I've read that the statute
of limitations on a civil suit, if the Wilsons were to pursue one, is three
years. That means, if they were to sue, they'd have a deadline of Friday (which
is the 3-year anniversary of Plame's outing, July 14) to file. I don't know
if that information is correct or not. But how convenient would it be, if
the Wilsons were about to file suit against Karl Rove, to publish a column
and do two Fox appearances reiterating Karl's innocence. Add in the real ad
hoc nature of this reporting (sudden announcement on Drudge, the funny print
bit described above), and it seems like this press binge was a last minute
thing.
If he did he's not the only one. Karl
Rove is also in the clear, which Novak said he'd make
sure happened.
Great little campaign they all had going to get Wilson, with his wife part
of the twofer. But what we all need to remember is that these smear merchants
may not have gotten jail at the hands of Fitzgerald, but he certainly had them
relegated to a special place in hell for a very long time. I'd also guess that
the civil suit will be merciless, or maybe I'm just hoping. Because Rove, Novak
and Cheney (maybe even put Bush on the stand) deserve to get hurt where it counts, their wallets.
One source remains, which is allegedly Armitage. Meanwhile, Fitz continues to work. But the guys he's after are old school Nixon weavers. This may be one group who gets away.
(cartoon by Steve Bradenton)
