Matt, Judy, Rove, O’Donnell, Plame, Fitgerald et al: An Update

By Rachel on July 6, 2005 7:55 AM

A long weekend of sober second thought, and suddenly we’re midweek. Several things have happened, and several things have not:

Yesterday, Patrick Fitgerald submitted a brief demanding jail for both Judith Miller and Matt Cooper. Apparently, he thinks it’s really important that their contempt orders be fully enforced so that future reporters are cowed into revealing their sources. Small, niggling details like the sources having now been revealed by Time Inc., Judith Miller’s non-article on the matter, Fitzgerald’s non-indictments in the matter and the fact that he actually knows their identity anyway are apparently not worthy of consideration.

Newsweek did not come out with an article that said “It’s Rove!”; Rove’s lawyer Robert Luskin issued a vociferous denial. So what does this mean for Lawrence O’Donnell, who (as he says and says and says) “broke the story” that no one seems to want to touch? (See Kurtz, Howard on “Reliable Sources“). O’Donnell has been aggressively pursuing it over at the Huffington Post (which, in a side note, is another indicator that it has found its relevance), jumping on Luskin’s statement that Rove “never knowingly disclosed classified information” and asking about what Rove may have unknowingly dropped, oh and by the way what is your client’s status in this investigation, anyway? Witness? Subject? Target? (He previously noted that a denial from Rove’s lawyer is not the same as a denial from Rove). He is the only one who is really hammering at Rove though. Chuck Schumer would like to hear Rove issue a denial, too. We’ll see who else jumps on that bandwagon.

The New York Times outs Valerie Plame as a mother, wife, and regular person whose life suddenly whipsawed into turmoil because the administration didn’t like her husband’s penchant for revealing the truth. It’s a lovely portrait of a couple and it’s actually pretty sad. This is going to sound goofy but for anyone who watches Alias, you know that one of the show’s greatest strengths is portraying Sydney as a real person struggling with her double life. I know Valerie Plame probably wears less wigs but the article evoked that same feeling of pathos.

…not that it moved anyone to do anything. Okay. If the story O’Donnell ‘broke’ really was the worst-kept secret ever, then why oh why did it never come out? Was everyone so reluctant to get pulled into the Grand Jury? The fact that this whole process shut Robert Novak up so completely is a good indicator that the stakes are indeed high; but you’d think that a story like this would excite some curiosity in the press, especially over the course of a hotly-contested election. As one blogger asked: “Is it normal that members of the press know the answer to a major mystery but they withhold it, as a group, from the public?” I was shocked when one of my own sources in DC sent me an email last week telling me I’d be “stunned” when I found out the truth, which the source couldn’t reveal, natch. Then late that night another colleague told me that everone knew the leak was Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Needless to say, I really was stunned – even more so when I Googled and didn’t find anything on it. Then Saturday I read about O’Donnell’s revelations (on blogs, mostly), and then I didn’t read about it in the MSM or hear about it when I turned on the news. I understand an abundance of caution, and yes we know there were two sources (at least), and yes we’re looking for the original leaker who leaked to Novak which may be different than the person who leaked to Cooper, and yes we don’t want to throw accusations around – but, you know, in general the silence has been deafening. And that confuses the hell out of me.

And, at the end of it all, is today: Matt & Judy will learn their fate when Judge Hogan rules. After which everyone will have to live with how they’ve handled this.

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