WaPo's Richard Cohen talks stupid trash on Fitzgerald and lots ...

[understandinglife]

... of folk are informing him just how inane and reckless this Op-Ed column of his, is:

Let This Leak Go

By Richard Cohen

Thursday, October 13, 2005; Page A23

The best thing Patrick Fitzgerald could do for his country is get out of Washington, return to Chicago and prosecute some real criminals.

Have your blow-lunch bags ready if you read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101202002.html

Kos is accurate and terse:

What a dumb fuck.

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/13/113521/45

John Aravosis buries him:

RIP, Richard Cohen
by John in DC - 10/13/2005 09:56:00 AM

No he's not dead, just his credibility.

I used to love this guy. He was one of the best op ed writers in the country. Now, I don't know what he is. His op ed in Thursday's Washington Post about how Patrick Fitzgerald should just quit and go home... What, did karl Rove kidnap Cohen's cat?

To wit (he does bury him):

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/10/rip-richard-cohen.html

Atrios awards him Wanker of the day:

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_atrios_archive.html#112920993179365451

Steve at The News Blog ... well you gotta just see the pic of Fitz and Judy (actually only a part of Judy), and read it:

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/10/let-her-go-patpretty-please.html

And, then there's ReddHedd at firedoglake -- this one is robustly detailed and fierce -- yummy:

Dear Richard Cohen ...

Should I call you Dick -- or do you prefer "connected beltway hack with no understanding of the point of prosecuting people who break the law?"

Read your column in today's Washington Post. Thought I would drop you a line to ask if you have upped your medications or if you were drunk at your deadline time or something? Do you know any real prosecutors -- or only the political wannabes that you meet at DC social functions?

If you don't know any actual prosecuting attorneys, let me help you out. For people who uphold the law as their vocation -- and there are an awful lot of them in this country who take their jobs very seriously -- putting people in jail for breaking the law, and seeking justice, is their job.

Sure, they are mean to the jerks who break the law. (btw, these people are called criminals.) These criminals may be poor, uneducated and even mentally unstable -- and sometimes they are wealthy, highly educated and people you seem to want to continue to hang out with at cocktail parties.

So much more -- enjoy:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_firedoglake_archive.html#112923457347397662

Mr Cohen, what I'm going to suggest is so simple even you should be able to get it -- PUBLISH AN APOLOGY TO MR FITZGERALD AND HIS STAFF AND TO EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN.


Peace.

[wanpete]

1. Ha ha!

this is really laughable. Man! They must really be shrivering scared!

[texpatriot2004]

2. Attacking the opponent personally, looks like they are in full

swing. Things must be going very well then.

[SittingBull]

3. Call me tin foil hat

I think Cohen and Drum should test if they can get away with it- above the law.

Indeed, test failed.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_10/007324.php


:D


PS: recommended.

[jean]

4. That would have been Frist ... who kidnapped Cohen's cat. But Rove

probably put him up to it.

[Vinnie From Indy]

34. LOL! Bill "catkiller" Frist is to cats what Ted Bundy was to women.

I am surprised that Cohen would so publicly throw his reputation out there to get shredded without knowing what Fitz can or cannot prove. He will be done as an op-ed writer if Fitz does indict and can prove serious crimes. Does Cohen know something we don't? It makes no sense.

[H2O Man]

5. Expect much more

of this nonsense in the next 7 to 10 days.

[understandinglife]

8. Roger that ... and boy do they have to multi-task!! Miers, DeLay, Frist, .

... all the WHIGers, Bolton, Cheney, & Neoconster-in-chief, himself, Bush.

I don't think they have what it takes .... we're ridding the steamroller of truth and they are about to become pavement.


Peace.

[glitch]

33. It is useful though - sure we've known about Cohen but others exposing

themselves for who and what they are is useful in these times.

I love to see these bloviators go up against the big bad blog and lose.

[datadiva]

6. My email to him

Your right on one point, more is at stake here. The integrity of the United States of America!

I am disgusted by your article.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

7. Richard Cohen is a Grade A asshole

So, naturally, he's a Post regular.

He was all gung-ho to attack Iraq.

Moran.

[Fenris]

9. The hilarious thing is that WaPo links to Pandagon...

So readers can find out what Bloggers are saying about the piece. Pandagon's entry included this brief summation of Cohen: "What a fucking retard."

:rofl:

[understandinglife]

13. Yes, so convenient that the WaPo provides this link of bloggers ...

.... commenting:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101202002_Technorati.html

38 and counting as of 1407 PDT.


Peace.

[bunny planet]

10. I hope Reddgate of firedoglake actually sent that last LTTE and I hope

they publish it. What a fooked up editorial Richard Cohen wrote.

Let treason go Dick, I don't think so.

[understandinglife]

11. Democracy Cell Project: "Dear Mr. Cohen ....

<clip>

Mr. Cohen, please try to refrain from rendering legal opinions. You are quite clearly not qualified in this area.

For that matter, please give up the mind-reading act as well. You have no way of knowing what anyone's intent was in identifying Valerie Plame to the media. As the administration so often reminds us, we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. Identifying and revealing the names of covert agents is not the same as, say, identifying and naming who's gay and who's not in homophobic/Republican Washington, D.C. The information was not only marked "classified", but also marked NF (no foreign). In a time of war, to reveal this information may well be considered treason, regardless of the intent of those who leak the information, hence The Espionage Act.

If you have ever worked for the federal government and been given a SF312 clearance, then you know that it's virtually impossible not to know what you are doing is wrong at the time you are doing it. Further, if one member of the administration had participated, then it might be possible to cry innocence. With the number that is currently standing guilty, by their own admission, it is nothing short of intentional. What the objective of that intent was can only be inferred from their actions, but you cannot state it as fact, nor can I.

More at the link:

http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2005/10/dear_richard_co.html

Whack!


Peace.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. This appeared in this morning's Daily News

The stupidest Cohen opinion piece I've EVER read. I guess it's just fine with him if our country is run by criminals. Bah...

[girl gone mad]

14. I'd say the papers must all be is disarray.

Young people don't subscribe - they read the internet. All of the papers were so wrong about Bush and the war that they've lost a significant amount of credibility.

The more nonsense like this they publish, the quicker they'll die.

[understandinglife]

15. Sid's Fishbowl: "World Class Stupid" Award

General Tommy Franks famously called Douglas Feith "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth".

It appeared the title was his forever.

No more. Congratulations, Richard Cohen. You're the new holder of the title.

More at the link:

http://kirghizlight.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_kirghizlight_archive.html#112922823544503366

Peace.

[DemReadingDU]

16. scared and in denial

and it's not just Cohen


Matt Lauer on the Today Show interviewing Tim Russert Wednesday morning Oct 12, 2005, ...Matt says, Does anyone care about Karl Rove and all that?

reference the last half-minute of this video clip...
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Today-Russert-Bad-poll-Bush-10-13.wmv


Then this morning Mary Matlain was on Imus, and she says...the people don't care, there's no crime committed, let's talk about all the positive things going on in Iraq.

[understandinglife]

18. Ms Matalin, being a WHIGer, most definitely cares!!! Com'on Mary ...

.... you can do better than that ....

http://www.thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal#matalin


Peace.

[Jane Austin]

24. Ms Matalin actually said she isn't following this case at all.

Says she's much too busy, what with her two kids and all.

I swear she said that, and I played it back so DH could hear, too.

[hootinholler]

17. Oh please let the Rude Pundit comment on this.

He takes profanity into an art form.

-Hoot

[AlCzervik]

19. So Cohen said in a nutshell "If you find evidence of another crime while

investigating this leak you should do nothing at all" What a tool.

[TacticalPeek]

20. Kick.

:kick:

[understandinglife]

21. Larry Johnson: "Someone needs to alert ... Cohen that he is a nitwit ...

... and moron for trying to advance White House supplied talking points that no real crime occurred.
Here are some of the facts that will come out when Fitzgerald ends his investigation:

-- Valerie Plame was still a non-official cover officer in July 2003 when her identity was revealed by colostomy bag Bob Novak.

-- Valerie Plame had traveled overseas on secret missions using that cover as required under the statute in question.

-- Valerie Plame's exposure also almost compromised the identity of other non-official cover officers.

-- Valerie Plame did not have the authority to send her husband on the Niger mission and in fact did not make the decision.

Other mental midgets like Cohen, such as Victoria Toensing, continue to insist that no crime could have been committed because Valerie Plame, "worked at a desk job". Newsflash for these so-called Washington insiders who have proven they know nothing about the intelligence community -- at least 40% of the people working at CIA Headquarters are working undercover. Just because they may physically go to the CIA building in McLean, Virginia everyday does not mean that their relationship with the CIA is acknowledged.

Much more at the link:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/13/21472/723

Facts, truth ... justice.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

22. "To compromise these identities is to commit an act of treason."

I thought that sentence from Larry Johnson's TPMCafe post deserved its very own subject line.


Peace.

[DemReadingDU]

29. I would hope that Larry Johnson has been called

to testify by Patrick Fitzgerald

[understandinglife]

23. Check the comment by Tryggth at noquarter.typepad.com ...

.... on Larry Johnson's TPMCafe cross-post to his own blog:

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/why_patrick_fit.html

Suggest all of you who are not regular readers of Larry Johnson's blog, do take the time to check the comments to his posts.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

37. Mark Kleiman offers a bit of perspective on "driving to work at Langley"

Several aeons ago, when I was young and irresponsible and worked on drug policy at the Justice Department, I saw some work product from a first-rate analyst at the CIA and had a number of telephone conversations with him from his office in the CIA's counternarcotics center at Langley.

I noticed that the name he used on the phone -- let's say "Jim Smith" -- wasn't the name on the work product, which I knew from the restricted-distribution list attached to it was circulating to the very highest levels. I assumed that someone up his chain of command had stolen credit for the analysis, and commiserated with him about it. "Jim" delicately pointed out that people in his line of work used more than one name. Ooops!

One day I called his office and someone else answered the phone. "Jim" wasn't there, I was told. I asked if I could leave a message. No, "Jim" was out of the country and wouldn't be back for some time. "Where can I reach him?" I asked stupidly. The frozen silence on the other end of the line informed me of my error; I never saw or heard of "Jim" again.

So "driving to a desk job at Langley" and "being a NOC" are not inconsistent facts.

More at the link:

http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/valerie_plame_/2005/10/undercover_work_and_langley_desk_jobs.php

Yep.


Peace.

[Stephanie]

25. putting people in jail for breaking the law, ...is their job.

OMG - brilliant!

[BamaBecky]

26. kick

[FourStarDemocrat]

27. Hey, maybe Cohen is trying to use reverse psychology here

Maybe he wants Fitz to read his column and say to himself, "Fuck this idiotic a-hole! I was thinking of giving up on this investigation, but not after reading this!"

[ngGale]

28. Oh really, Mr. Cohen...afraid are we?

Fitz has been doing a superb job, cleaning up Chicago, he can handle DC at the same time.
His record is impeccable... :popcorn:

[The River]

30. Impotent Reporter

Sounds like a bit of journalistic impotence here:

"I have no idea what Fitzgerald will do. My own diligent efforts to find out anything have come to naught."

So Dick...I guess if you can't uncover something..there must be nothing? But then he says:

"Do not bring trivial charges -- nothing about conspiracies, please -- and nothing about official secrets, most of which are known to hairdressers, mistresses and dog walkers all over town."

So Dick....you can't find out or don't know what every mistress, dog-walker and hairdresser in town knows?

Dick...I think your "pencil" has run out of lead.
Try using crayons as befits your journalistic talent!

[understandinglife]

39. "Try using crayons as befits your journalistic talent!" --- Good one!!

Thanks for the ;)


Peace.

[Cults4Bush]

31. Firedoglake has fast become one of my favorites the last couple of weeks

They seem to be getting a bit more recognition as well.

Makes me happy, they deserve it.

Oh yeah and another Dick tries to bluster his way through some thick friggin' lies. DC, what else is new...

[Canuckistanian]

32. ... And a snippet from Digby...

After reading this laughable pile of offal by Richard Cohen today (who, as usual, writes precisely the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time)I'm more convinced than ever that something very sick has happened to our politics. Andrea Mitchell said on Hardball last night: "Chris, we should point out that there is a difference between playing political hardball, which people in Washington play and people in this White House play, and anything that approaches a crime." This idea that character assassination has become so normalized that even the outing of a CIA agent for political purposes is considered business as usual is outrageous and it explains a lot about what has gone wrong with our government.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

[lala_rawraw]

35. Serves him right for going after me n/t:)

[understandinglife]

38. Indeed!! ;)

And, he is no match for you or Arianna or Jane ...


Peace.

[lala_rawraw]

40. lmao,

He of limp pen need not write:)

[Halliburton]

36. must've gotten the fax from Mehlman's office

[Halliburton]

41. the best thing Richard Cohen can do is RETIRE!