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Rove's Garage
Rich Galen Wednesday October 19, 2005
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La, dee, dah. It's quarter to two. There's no one in the place but me and you. So set 'em up Joe �
Done? Good. Thanks.
Here's how you know a story has hit a brick wall. In this case, the Valerie Plame/Judith Miller/Scooter Libby/Karl Rove/Joe Wilson/Matt Cooper story.
The Associated Press ran a piece - this is true - about what is in Karl Rove's garage. It seems that Mrs. Rove, to prove that her husband wasn't hiding from staked out reporters by hunkering down among the lawn care implements, opened the garage door and someone eyeballed the stuff.
That was after someone decided that maybe Vice President Cheney was involved in this whole mess because - well, because the special prosecutor didn't say the Veep wasn't involved.
Yesterday was also full of "Who will replace Rove and Libby if they are indicted and have to leave the White House?"
This, in spite of the fact that the only people who have mentioned that they might be indicted are the people writing leads at the Associated Press and Reuters who have the theory that, they might be indicted because the special prosecutor didn't say they wouldn't be indicted.
Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who went to the federal pokey for 82 days because according to her, her lawyer thought that Scooter Libby's lawyer was sending secret signals that Libby didn't want Miller to testify even though he had granted a waiver of confidentiality.
A year ago.
Reasonable people - to the extent that there are any left in this town - would have thought that Miller's lawyer might have, sometime in the ensuing months, picked up the phone and called Libby's lawyer to make sure he hadn't misunderstood.
Speaking of Ms. Miller, the press corps is pretty much split on what she is up to. One report out of Las Vegas yesterday where she received some award for sitting in the federal cooler, held that about half the reporters in the audience applauded.
A major Washington reporter told me that there was a general hope that the slogan "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas" would mean that Miller would stay there. However she apparently got on a plane to come back here so she could testify at a Senate hearing on the need for a federal shield law.
That reminded me of a hearing in the House some years ago featuring, I believe, Cissy Spacek and Sally Fields who testified on the problems of the wives of miners and farmers. Why? Because they had played those parts in movies.
One of Judith Miller's lawyers is Bob Bennett. Bennett was at CNN Wednesday when I was there preparing to go on television to speak, one suspects, well of his client.
Here's a conundrum for the New York Times: How does the Times, which is paying Judith Miller's legal bills, cover Bennett who is specifically attempting to improve his client's standing by talking publicly about the case?
Will the Times assign reporters to chase down assertions which Mr. Bennett makes on his client's behalf? Will the paper challenge him to substantiate what he says - while that same paper is paying him to say those things?
And here's another question: If the special prosecutor is finished with Judith Miller, why does she still need a lawyer?
Maybe it's because the special prosecutor hasn't specifically said she doesn't need a lawyer.
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On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: The AP story about Rove's garage, the ultimate guy-odometer-once-in-a-lifetime-Mullfoto, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.
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Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen
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