I'm taking bets that Mary Matalin

[eileen from OH]

is the "administration official" who told The Washington Post on Saturday that two White House officials leaked the information to selected journalists to discredit Wilson. She's never completely cut ties to the administration and still works for them occasionally so she could qualify, don't ya think? I know that conventional wisdom says it's Tenet, but I'm starting to doubt that, for no particular reason, other than a gut feeling.

Plus, I've never bought her whole resignation thing - too damned ambitious to "stay home with the kids". Could it be she saw what was going on at Cheney's office and while not blowing him to hell, got out cuz she saw what he was doing and didn't want to go down with him? Anyone know the timing of her resignation vis a vis the initial Wilson "outing"?

Whoever that "administration official" is, they have balls of steel 'cuz you KNOW that they were not playin' by the Bush White House Rules. I mean, when you think about it, WHOEVER it was who confirmed it, rather than spinning it, is the REAL Mystery Player in all this.

eileen from OH

[wryter2000]

1. Dunno

MM a "top administration official"? Doesn't sound like she'd fit the bill. I do think she'd have enough integrity to do something like this if she had the opportunity, though.

[flamingyouth]

2. It keeps getting curiouser and curiouser

You certainly could be right.

BTW, what's John Poindexter up to these days, since he "resigned"?

[caledesi]

3. She resigned after last Xmas, but recently wasn't she brought back

for awhile?

[Cappurr]

4. One thing about Mary Maitlin

I disagree with just about all her postitions, but she isn't dirty. I don't think James would have married her if she was.

[Must_B_Free]

11. Maybe Carville is an opportunist himself

.

[FlemingsGhost]

14. All politicians are "dirty."

Comes with the territory...

[ewagner]

5. My money is on Karen Hughes

She still works for him and flys in and out to help write speeches etc.,

She is also a shrill, vindictive ...uuummmm...(can't think of the word...tho I remember it rhymes with ditch or something like that)

[Scairp]

6. Tenet?!

Do you really mean to imply that the Director of the CIA burned at agent's cover? Or did you mean to type ROVE instead?

[eileen from OH]

7. No, no, no you misread. . .

I'm talking about the administration official that CONFIRMED that two other adminstration officials had made the calls and done the leak, etc.


It's in the Washington Post's story from yesterday. Anybody got the link - I'm leaving in a few min. . .

eileen from OH

[Scairp]

8. You're right

I apologize. I thought you were talking about the WH official who did the actual leaking. I thought it was a typo. No, I don't think it was Tenet either who did the cofirming. It could be anybody who did that.

[AndyTiedye]

9. This Was Going to the Press About the Leak

not the leak itself.

[lanlady]

10. I don't think she was an "admin official" at the time

Cheney supposedly hired her back recently, although I don't remember when. But this just doesn't smack of Matalin.

[TacticalPeek]

12. Dunno if she is technically a WH official.

And we're reading tea leaves from a distant angle admittedly.

I'm guessing Andy Card, WH chief of staff. He once talked too freely to a reporter (Ron Brownstein?) and had to stand in the corner over it. And he seems a little closer to decent than the rest of the jerks.

[Robin Hood]

13. Nahhh, She's not that stupid or mean.

[TacticalPeek]

15. Please see #7.

:)

[Snellius]

16. Why did Drudge put her picture in his rogue's gallery today?

He had photos of the usual suspects (Condi, Dickie, Tenet) on his site with the byline "Who Leaked the Name?", but for some reason he later included Matalin. Now where from out of the blue did he happen to target her? She had not yet been mentioned in any news source I could find? Did somebody call him?