Novak on "Meet the Press" Claims He Didn't Out Plame

[sabra]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002840060

Novak on "Meet the Press" Claims He Didn't Out Plame

NEW YORK Columnist Robert Novak, after submitting to a pair of interviews on his friendly home turf -- Fox News -- traveled to an away field on Sunday, appearing with Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press," where he found himself on the hot seat at times.

There, among other things, he reversed course in his dispute with "Newsday," now saying that the paper did not not misquote him on a key point but rather that he misspoke. He continued to claim that he did not really "out" covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. And he defended not only talking about sources with the prosecutor, but also refusing until now to confirm he had testified.

Yet, asked if he'd do it all again, he said he wasn't sure. But he clearly did not regret outing Plame, in fact, arguing, with little evidence, "I don’t think I outed her. I think she was outed by Aldridge Aimes before. I don’t think she was a -- a covert operative."

The main part of the transcipt follows.

<snip>

MR. RUSSERT: Now, Newsday interviewed you a few weeks after your column ran, back in 2003, and quotes you as saying this, “I didn’t dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.”

MR. NOVAK: That was a misstatement on my part. I—I’m—I’ve found I’m much better—I hope I’m not screwing up on this interview because I’m much better interviewing than I am giving interviews. They didn’t give me the name. And of course it was not a “they,” it was one person, which I later checked out with Mr. Rove. They, they—the Newsday article also paraphrased me as saying they came to me, I never said they came to me, because obviously I initiated the interview.

[tuvor]

1. Three years to think of an excuse, and that's the best he can do?

He's turned himself into little more than comic relief on the public stage.

[Vincardog]

2. 1 lie 2 Deny 3 return to 1

[havocmom]

3. Hope a couple retired spooks dog him just enough to keep him tense

and tossing up whatever the hell he drinks too much of.

Sumabitch deserves to worry himself to death wondering when the ice pick is gonna come.

[Zeke]

4. Well, Yeah, But...

Public stage?
More like the right wing stage.
FOX, Matthews, Hannity & Russert
are giving him a chance to re-drink
the hemlock on-air and "redeem"
himself in their eyes.
He's always been a hack and a joke.

[struggle4progress]

5. The Big Lie About Valerie Plame

By Larry Johnson | bio

... Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.

A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.

The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.
The Republicans now want to hide behind the legalism that "no laws were broken". I don't know if a man made law was broken but an ethical and moral code was breached. For the first time a group of partisan political operatives publically identified a CIA NOC. They have set a precendent that the next group of political hacks may feel free to violate ...

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/13/04720/9340

[Sherman A1]

6. Well he is entitled to his opinion

and so am I. Which would include a trial for treason, followed by a guilty sentence and either a chain gang in the Deep South were it is hot and humid or perhaps some quality time working on his tan at a lovely Federal Facility in the charming Caribbean Sea on the Island of Cuba.

[mumon]

7. He is a serial liar

and this latest outburst from him is so full of shit it stinks to high heaven.

[EST]

8. People seem to forget that outing of covert operatives

is an on-going habit of this stupid bunch. Remember when chumpy the chimp gave orders, in 2004, in an effort to resuscitate his flagging poll numbers, to out a computer geek/budget handler that had been infiltrated into or had been turned in al-Qaeda?

As I recall, they were pulling the fellow out, anyway, by way of a faux arrest, I think, when the shitheads chose to reveal his ID. Nearly got him killed, as well as several others, and brought down enormous criticism and justified anger from several governments.

These hateful bastards rely on lies and the forgetfulness of most Americans. They are despicable!

This was, I think, maybe April 2004 and was related to their attempt to portray six year old intelligence into an urgent threat to blow up some buildings (stock exchange, maybe?) in New York.

[Spazito]

9. Oh Geez, Aldrich Ames, he brings Ames into it now....

"I don’t think I outed her. I think she was outed by Aldridge Aimes before."

A pathetic, truly pathetic insignificant piece of slime is what Novak is.

[la la]

11. He also said--------

'she was outed by the * traitor*, Aldrich Ames'

Am I the only one who heard that?

[Spazito]

14. LOL, good catch!

I guess if Ames didn't out Plame, which he didn't, and it was Novak, which it was, he will admit to being a traitor then eh, NOT. The man is a typical neocon, can't see how ironic his own statement is.

[LiberalHeart]

10. He just screwed himself when he said this....

NOVAK: "I believe that, as far as making his name public on NBC, in my column, on any—for any—on any other means is a violation of the tacit arrangement in which I interviewed him when he gave me the name, when he gave me the fact of Mrs. Wilson’s involvement in this case."

"When he gave me the name" is the money part of that quote. He's been saying he got the name from Who's Who.

[samsingh]

12. he's a traitorous liar

[Rex]

13. I bet Novak hears hissing whenever out in public.

He knows he's been damned a traitor and will rot in Hell.

[DemsRBetterLovers]

15. There is a difference between...

being covert and being undercover? -Novak Hmmm, lets see...
according to dictionary.com

covert: Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown: covert military operations; covert funding for the rebels.

undercover: Performed or occurring in secret: an undercover investigation.
Engaged or employed in spying or secret investigation: undercover FBI agents.

I'll let you decide.

Well, technically they are different. But that doesnt change teh fact hes a little troll, a traitorous one at that. I'm so glad that his career is ruined.