“Unleash the Weasels,” quips ReddHedd at FireDogLake blog. And, it seems we have weasels in both parties. ReddHedd gives us this mouthful (!) for starters:
“He’s a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he’s been tapped by God to do very important things,” one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. – New York Daily News
Chase that with this apertif from the Wall Street Journal:
Even before the CIA leak investigation has ended, Democrats and Republicans are planning public-relations campaigns. […]
Republicans, meanwhile, have started complaining about prosecutorial overreach.
For their part, Republicans are trying to focus attention elsewhere — on coming elections and their legislative efforts, for example — while playing down the significance of any charges. They also are trying to train some fire on retired diplomat Joseph Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame, the Central Intelligence Agency operative whose identity was disclosed. Mr. Wilson charged that the White House leaked the name of his wife to undercut his criticism of the administration’s war policy. The Republican National Committee distributed to some politicians talking points titled, “Joe Wilson’s Top Ten Worst Inaccuracies and Misstatements.”
During weekend television talk shows, some Republican lawmakers even floated the idea of perjury and obstruction of justice charges amounting to little more than legal foot faults.
That may be a tricky path to pursue, in part because of the Republicans’ record of attacking the Clinton administration for not being truthful. Democrats yesterday quickly circulated a recap of Republican outrage over President Clinton’s misleading comments about his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. “Republicans: Against Perjury and Obstruction Before They Were For It,” read the document’s headline. Republicans also may have to maneuver without their master strategist, White House political adviser Karl Rove, who is one of the likely targets of the investigation.
The Democrats? Well — Jesus, people! Chill, will you?!
“It’s not in the Democrats’ interest to go nuts,” said Mark Corallo, a media consultant and former Justice Department official under Attorney General John Ashcroft. Their thinking, he says, should be: “Our enemy has set himself on fire. Instead of pouring gasoline that can blow up and burn us all, why don’t we just step away and let them burn.”
Raw Story has Democratic leaders “privately planning ‘indictment’ strategy. Whew.
The WSJ piece adds, “The Democrats’ talking points begin: ‘The White House leak case is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for war in Iraq’.”
Okay, that sounds like a start. Now I just pray that you don’t make “We were duped!” a main theme because you’ll look like idiots. After all, we the lowly were able to figure out that it was all lies, and you couldn’t or wouldn’t. So, begin with an apology! Please. We might forgive you (?).
And don’t miss pateacher’s new diary, “Shameful Republican Hypocrisy.”
You beat me to the punch! I just wrote a diary on this, also taking Russert and Nicholas Kristof to task for their complicity in the Republican strategy. Rather than post it here as a comment (it is too long), I’ll go ahead and put it up as a diary. It will include the Democratic list of Republican quotes that you cite. Give me a minute!
Dammit! I’ll link your diary!
Hate it when that happens … but it’s actually good to have this story in two spots on the site — more exposure!
P.S. I have a HOT story if anyone’s the mood to do a fast, important diary this morning.
i didn’t see it … will keep looking.
Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus apparently work for the Republicans as they unleashed an article about Joe Wilson….who is probably the nicest guy around and who did stand up to Bush. The article is filled with “stuff” that he said that may not be exactly abosolutely 100% accurate.
And they imply that he put his wife in jepoardy irresponsibly. Trying to break up their marriage, I guess.
I’d like to know why they are still acting as press agents for Bush. This article is a real smear job.
Even I don’t see Patrick Fitzgerald as vile. I think both sides are getting very excited.
Link To Fink article on Joe Wilson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/24/AR2005102401690_pf.html
They prefer saying “We were duped” to saying “We were flag-waving opportunistic soldier-killing weasels.”
Pretty fucking difficult when you consider the Senate majority who voted for this debacle. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and try saying Dems didn’t know Bush would actually launch a war, or try saying Dems didn’t actually know that only Congress could declare war, or try saying that “everybody thought Saddam had WMD”. Throw in a little “9/11 changed everything” for good measure.
Or, you can avoid the topic entirely.
John Edwards likes covering the poverty beat, not like the increase in poverty has anything to do with Iraq or anything.
And John Kerry is sticking with his “promise” for America. Anybody want to clue Mr. Kerry on why that – coming from him – might not fly?
My rep says that House Dems don’t want to appear “shrill” or worse, look nutty in front of other members. Excuse me – do you actually attend House sessions, or at least occasionally watch them on C-Span? Oh, I forgot. You told me you missed Katrina because you’d been away from the House and the news.
Or, you can pick the most bone-headed strategy of all – stay the course. Pardon me Senator Clinton, but doesn’t one need to chart a course before one can actually stay the course?
Amen to all of that.
The “you” in my comment is not directed to you. It’s directed at every elected Dem who voted for this carnage.
I was worried there for a minute! Not. 🙂
The irony of that statement is overwhelming…sounds more like a description of chimpy to me.
Bring it on.
Amen, sister!
Statement by Mark Corallo, source NewsMax
Referring to congressional investigation into Clinton’s last-minute pardon of Marc Rich.
And referring to perjury charges, source WorldNetDaily:
So when Democrats are the target of an investigation it is important for Republican spokescritters to comment. When Republicans are the target the proper media response is to say nothing.
Interesting.
The WSJ piece adds, “The Democrats’ talking points begin: ‘The White House leak case is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for war in Iraq’.”
A lawyer put this together. We were taught in our trial classes to tell a story to the jury, and the classic opening statment starts out “This case is about . . . “
Not particularly relevent – it just caught my eye.
How is that possible when God’s so busy telling Georgie what to do next? If this is true, then God is a no good, double-crossing, back-stabber.