Novak was flipped early by Fitz (WP via Atrios)

[swag]

via http://atrios.blogspot.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301028_2.html

A critical early success for Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert D. Novak, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to "two senior administration officials." Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel's inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.

[William769]

1. Just proves he's a weasel.

[Lerkfish]

17. I, for one, am glad he is.

it only helps fitz's case.
if they all stonewalled, we'd be nowhere at this point.

[FreedomAngel82]

21. Yep

I find it quite humerous how he cozy's up to the Bush administration when it suits him and when it doesn't suit him he totally sells them out. So much for loyalty eh? As the old saying goes: "with friends like these who needs enemies?"

[July]

40. Yep, traitor, wimp, weasel, douchebag. nt

[Matariki]

52. ah, and i suppose you admire Judy Miller for her principles?

and not being a 'snitch'?

[William769]

59. When I refer to him as a weasel

Meaning he can't be trusted even by his own side.

[Fovea]

2. Bobby the Frown, flipped?

And here he was a made man, and all.

[napi21]

3. At his age, it's not worth going to jail for anything!

Actually, as much as I detested listening to him, I commend him for cooperating and not lying with the rest of them.

[obxhead]

24. hmmmm.... he didn't lie huh.

I'm sure it went more like he told enough of the truth to pin the blame on the other guy. I doubt he "told the whole truth and nothing but the truth, etc etc."

[ruggerson]

4. That makes sense because Novak has strangely been

out of Fitz's sights during this whole thing.

If Novak flipped early on, that's huge trouble for BushCo.

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. Agreed. I wondered why he was gettin' away with it.

[journalist3072]

5. So let me get this straight....

Novack is not in any legal jeopardy?

I find that troubling, even if he is cooperating. He was the one who originally placed her name in his newspaper column. He needs to be in jail.

[unblock]

10. it's not clear that he'll get off completely free

but then, this is the way it works when busting up criminal organizations. you get off easy sometimes if you can deliver the bigger fish.

[FreedomAngel82]

22. Right

He could end up going to jail for all we know. He probably thinks he's scott free since he cooperated. It'll be interesting on who all Fitzgerald indicts. I hope Novak gets something for what he did though.
He did commit treason.

[immoderate]

33. Novak is safe -- 1st Amendment.

Remember the Pentagon Papers?

--IMM

[On the Road]

48. If the Leak is Considered Criminal

under those espionage laws, Novak could be convicted. (Of course, there seems to be some doubt about whether the laws apply.)

Novak seems to have done the opposite of Martha Stewart. What he did may actually have been a crime, but he told the truth under oath.

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. No first Ammndment, they tried to get the NYT for teh

Pentagon Papers too, the precedent has been set

[On the Road]

54. Yes, But the Question is Not Over Leaking Classified Information

it's over blowing the cover of an undercover operative. There are very specific statutes that cover that. I'm not sure it will be applied to Novak, but the principle is fundamentally different from the Pentagon Papers.

[cassiepriam]

43. I do not think Fitz is after the small fry.

I would think a deal was cut early on with Novak.

[unblock]

6. seemed pretty obvious

after all, how else has he managed to maintain such a low profile during all this. he's the one who published the story, and yet miller and cooper are the ones in hot doo-doo?

obviously he cut a deal early.

[Cha]

18. Yeah, many on DU had

been saying just that.

[LiviaOlivia]

7. Who was the DUer in New Hampshire

That got to Novakula during the primary and told him that he(Novak) was a traitor? Anyone remember?

[hlthe2b]

28. Symbolman did that! eom

[LiviaOlivia]

29. Thank you hlthe2b

A great moment in DU history. A karma moment. Symbolman, I hope you are living well.

[Marr]

38. Traitor to his country, traitor to his own thuggish political party.

Yep.

[MADem]

42. You can read all about Symbolman's confrontation with the insane garden

gnome here!!!

http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/printables/051010roco03c?print=true



What About Novak?
By DAVID MARGOLICK
For more than 40 years, Beltway pundit Robert Novak has been a scowling bundle of contradictions. Now the high-decibel conservative who exposed Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. agent is at the silent center of a Justice Department probe—and as unrepentant as ever
On the afternoon of last year's New Hampshire primary, Robert Novak was in the Merrimack Diner in Manchester broadcasting a segment of Crossfire. It was a garden-variety event for Novak, then on his 12th presidential campaign and his umpteenth edition of CNN's gabfest, until a local man, furious with Novak for outing a covert C.I.A. agent in his syndicated column, started shouting at him during a commercial break. "You're a traitor!" he shrieked. "You're a traitor!" The man was hushed up, the program resumed, and Novak talked more politics.

But afterward, as Novak made his way to the CNN bus, his tormentor followed, taunted him some more, and allegedly shoved him from behind. Novak, a short septuagenarian whose three-piece suits hide a considerable gut, grabbed the much larger man by the arm and gave him a shove back, sending him sprawling. Then he prepared for more serious skirmishing. "Novak looked like a little caged animal, fist locked and cocked back," an unsympathetic observer later wrote, "like a garden troll gone insane." Before he could take another swing, his Crossfire counterpart Paul Begala dragged him away. ...

[Garbo 2004]

49. Symbolman was the guy Novak attacked? Holy crap! Really? n/t

[OzarkDem]

58. I don't think so

Sym was there with a camera recording the whole thing. IIRC, the guy Novakula pushed then bumped into Sym. Being winter & icy, everyone was slipping around.

Wonder if Sym still has that video clip?

[Garbo 2004]

61. OK, that refreshes my memory. Thanks. n/t

[jobycom]

8. Might explain Carville's comments.

Matlin might have known this. Novak would have felt like a turncoat, and Carville rubbed it in. Just a thought.

[kentuck]

12. Couold be....

Now that you mention it... Novak may have even mentioned Mary Matalin in his testimony?

[kentuck]

9. And if what Novak told him did not match up with what Libby and Rove said

...then there could be some perjury charges awaiting someone or two...?

[janx]

11. This article is fascinating! There's also a thread on it in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1872269

[liberal43110]

13. No honor among thieves

[proud patriot]

14. very interesting

:think:

[swag]

15. So does this account for Novak's blow-up with Carville

when Carville was needling Novak about having to "prove how tough" he was to the eds at the WSJ?

Apparently Novak did have to put on a show for the right-wing yes-men.

Funny stuff!

Tangentially, apropos of that epidode of "Crossfire," I've got that line from the Monkees' "Stepping Stone" going through my head:

"You won't find my name in your book of Who's Who."

[Stephanie]

23. I wonder if they staged that?

They had to get Novak off the air. Maybe rather than resign he decided to stage a tiff.

[swag]

26. Funny.

It did read, on repeated viewings, like a set-up to a National Wrestling Alliance feud between Ric Flair and Broadway Buddy Rose.

The whole episode was incomprehensible. That it was all bad theater would make it comprehensible at last.

[Cha]

16. So, I wonder why novakula

stomped out of cnn when he had already "turned"?

[swag]

20. Because Carville knew it and was salting his wound

with the line about Novak having to prove how tough he was to the Ed page at the Wall Street Journal.

Novak's flip must have been an open secret.

The American press really sucks, by the way, especially if they all knew this shit and nobody reported it.

[Cha]

25. Yeah, it makes more sense

to me now. This whole deadly saga is being played out before our eyes.. if only more Americans would wake up and notice.

[SoCalDem]

19. Maybe they promised him some teeth that fit his mouth

:)

[swag]

30. Membership has its privileges.

[mondo joe]

27. Randi Rhodes was right. She called it early on. n/t

[lovuian]

31. He squeeled and he isn't out of jail's reach yet either plus

Wilson will sue his butt!!!

[Clark2008]

44. The time has lapsed for that.

You just have a year to file for redress.

[Straight Shooter]

32. Has anyone noticed if Rove and Novak have been seen together lately?

Novak was Rove's conduit, and Novak talked to Fitzgerald. Did Rove know that Novak had talked to Fitzgerald before Rove testified before the GJ?

You know what I'm thinking? Oh, what a happy day if Novak met Rove after meeting with Fitzgerald and was wearing a wire. We could have Watergate and Monica deja vu.

[swag]

34. Remember Novak's 2004 Gridiron musical farce on Wilson/Plame?

http://thehill.com/under_dome/022504.aspx (scroll down)

had he flipped before this?

Robert Novak, the clandestine columnist

Can Robert Novak succeed on the stage by playing the outraged husband of a CIA agent whose identity as a deep-cover spy had been revealed by a certain syndicated columnist?

The answer will become apparent March 6 when Novak dresses up as retired diplomat Joseph Wilson to perform before Vice President Cheney and some 500 other guests at the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner at the Capitol Hilton.

In pursuing his day job as a nationally syndicated columnist, Novak identified Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative working in the field of weapons counterproliferation. The July 14 column has triggered a full-press FBI probe to find the leaker, amid much journalistic soul-searching.

Novak swears he’ll never tell anybody, including Wilson, who will also be at the dinner watching Novak (aka Joe Wilson) sing of his sad plight to the tune of “Once I Had a Secret Love.”

The lyrics begin:

“Novak had a secret source/who lived within the great White House/and one day his secret source/told him of my beloved spouse"

[Lucille]

45. More about Novak's song and dance

On one special occasion during the past year, Novak made an exception and broke his radio silence on the Plame case. In March (2004), at the ultimate Washington insider event—the annual Gridiron Club dinner—Novak starred in a skit about the Plame leak. Dressed in a top hat and cut-away coat, the columnist hammed it up in front of an audience of his peers, crooning to the tune of “Once I Had a Secret Love.” Novak sang off-key about outing “a girl spy” thanks to “a secret source who lived within the great White House.” And he finished it off with a killer closing line, delivered with a wink and a grin: “Cross the right wing you may try / Bob Novak's coming after you.” The audience howled.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0412.sullivan.html

Please note that the audience was mostly made up of member of the press and the movers and shakers of the Bush administration--the same people who howled with laughter at Bush's mock search for WMDs.

[OzarkDem]

56. Hope Novak likes eating crow

particularly when its served up piping hot in the slammer.

I can't believe the arrogance of these people. They really must have thought they could corrupt Fitzgerald, the same way they stole the election in Florida and swung the SCOTUS to back it up.

And I hope America remembers for a long, long, long time.

[swag]

35. Monday morning kick before dying.

[MADem]

37. And after Novak flipped, he ended up with a broken hip, if you recall nt

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

41. jon stewart said his hip was trying to escape

lol

[ProfessorGAC]

39. I've Suspected That Since Day One

That's why he was never on the same hotseat as Miller and Cooper. He obviously dropped the first dime.
The Professor

[lumberingbear]

46. It has been a real treat...

not seeing Novak put up on TV these past few months. Hope he stays off!!!

[oldlady]

47. I'm sickened

by this musical theatre administration...rich f*cks at dinners laughing over the outing of patriots, faux searches for wmds, the have/have more base, so blatantly not of/for/by the people-- revolting. move them out now!
peace

[robertpaulsen]

51. Wow, 4 confirmed Fitz flips: Hannah, Wurmser, Franklin & Novak!

Good find, swag!

It's Fitzmas Eve! Countdown to FROGMARCH!

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[Ksec]

53. Noval is a true republikkkan.

His ideology is fragile and weak and it doesnt take much to make him do backflips.

[Peace Patriot]

55. You could maybe figure that Novak was duped into committing a crime

on July 14, 2003, when he outed Plame, due to his being a lapdog for the Bushites and printing whatever they shoveled onto his desk. But by July 22, when he ADDITIONALLY outed the entire CIA WMD monitoring/non-proliferation project, 20 years in the making (Brewster-Jennings), he had to have known that something was not right (even if only regarding his own vulnerability to treason charges).

That's when he loses any benefit of the doubt, in my opinion. That date is an important one in the WMD-planting theory of Treasongate (that Treasongate was the coverup of a plot to plant WMDs in Iraq, that got discovered and foiled). Here's the time-line:

Late May 2003: David Kelly, the Brits' chief WMD expert, starts whistleblowing anonymously to the BBC about the "sexed up" Iraq WMD intel. (Libby met with Miller May 23.)

Late June 2003: Kelly is mysteriously outed to his bosses, and is interrogated at a "safe house."

July 7, 2003: Tony Blair is informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things" (COULD say, not HAD said) (--Hutton report)

July 7-14, 2003: Full court press by the Bushites, calling at least six reporters, and putting many top Bushites at risk of treason charges, all aimed at outing Plame (supposedly for Wilson's publication on the Niger allegation, July 6).

July 14, 2003: Plame outed (by Novak).

July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances; his office and computers searched.

July 22, 2003: Novak outs the entire CIA WMD operation, disabling all projects and putting all covert agents/contacts at risk of getting killed.

If you presume that what Blair found out about Kelly on July 7 is that Kelly knew about a Bushite plot to plant WMDs in Iraq that got foiled, a lot of things fall into place, in these two events, and many mysteries start getting solved. For instance...

Why did the Bushites go to such elaborate lengths to place Judith Miller in Iraq, with a special "embed" contract signed by Rumsfeld, to "hunt" for WMDs that they all knew weren't there--and also prime the public so vigorously to expect such a "find"? Were they just sitting around HOPING Miller would find some, by chance?

Why did Cheney send the CIA on a wild goose chase to Niger, to investigate an allegation that they all knew was based on forged documents? Why did they forge documents (and why were they such crude forgeries)? Why did they go to such trouble to place that false and easily disprovable allegation in Bush's SOTU speech (after it had been taken out of a previous speech as being too bogus)?

Who were the "dark actors" that David Kelly was concerned about in his email to (friend and colleague) Judith Miller, on the day he died? (--emails later released by his family, not by Miller, in which he says he feels hopeful that the controversy surrounding him will blow over but is nevertheless worried about the "many dark actors playing games.") (He was found dead the next day, near his home, a presumed suicide, but with many, many questions remaining about that death, for which there was never an adequate inquest.)

Part One of the WMD-planting theory of Treasongate is that all of this Niger business was bait to the CIA, to take a public no-nukes-in-Iraq position, and then discredit the CIA forever when the planted nukes were "found" by Miller. Part Two is that this nefarious scheme got foiled--the real reason for their outing of the entire CIA/BJ network, which was truly foolish overkill by the Bushites if their object was merely to "punish" Wilson.

Anyway, Novak's outing of Brewster-Jennings is the baffling part of what they did, and quite possibly is the entire impetus behind the Treasongate cover-up--if what they were covering up was an incredibly deceitful plan to fool the world, and gain enormous political benefit, with planted WMDs, that got discovered by insiders and foiled.

It's impossible to know, at this point, what Novak knew when he outed BJ, nor if US covert agents/contacts got killed as a result (and how many, and who)--something we may never know. But the penalty for exposing a covert agent who gets killed is death. And that may be why Novak turned state's evidence early on.

[OzarkDem]

57. Agree, he knew exactly what he was doing

and by that point, he had become so full of hubris he thought he was immune from any negative consequences. I can't imagine how he rationalized to himself the destruction of the CIA's WMD monitoring program.

[Generator]

60. Strange

I'm feeling all tender towards the douchebag du liberte now. If Judy had been FORCED (by lack of others willing to do it) to smear Wilson/Plame in print we know she would be in jail for life and Bushco would be free forever. So you never know.