Vice President's Aide Draws Spotlight (WSJ)

[kurth]

Vice President's Aide Draws Spotlight
Cheney Loyalist Libby, Known for His Discretion, Gains Uncharacteristic Prominence
By CARLA ANNE ROBBINS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 20, 2005; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- Before the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative, the word most often used in Washington to describe I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was discreet. As chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Libby was known for graciously returning journalists' calls -- and then giving away nothing. His boss's devotion to secrecy and aversion to the media is well-known. So why Mr. Libby discussed Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson and his CIA-operative wife with New York Times reporter Judith Miller, and perhaps others, is just one of the mysteries in the two-year investigation.

Officials who know Mr. Libby say he was almost certainly trying to shield Mr. Cheney from Mr. Wilson's charges that the White House manipulated prewar intelligence on Iraq. What is unknown is whether Mr. Libby's conversations with reporters were done on impulse, or part of a larger, scripted White House effort to discredit and punish Mr. Wilson by disclosing that his wife, Valerie Plame, worked at the Central Intelligence Agency. The grand jury on the case has also four times questioned White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove...

The insinuation that Mr. Cheney was behind the attempt to push a false charge against Iraq appears to have drawn Mr. Libby into the fray. And that has brought the investigation uncomfortably close to the vice president's own door. When he joined the administration in 2001, Mr. Libby was given three titles: chief of staff to the vice president, national-security adviser to the vice president and assistant to the president. One senior administration official who knows Mr. Libby well says that the Columbia University-trained lawyer has been involved in everything Mr. Cheney does, from building the public case for the war in Iraq to overseeing the vice president's daily schedule.

In the White House, Mr. Libby's inner-circle cachet is so great that he has been a full participant -- not a stand-in -- at the weekly lunch of the president's top economic advisers held every Wednesday in the private dining room in the White House mess. "Scooter's a half-step below a cabinet member," a former official says...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112976746804573849.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

[Dhalgren]

1. Has there ever been a person who held these two titles?

"Chief of Staff to the VP" and "Assistant to the President" would seem to be an odd coupling. In most cases (I would have thought) the offices of the Pres. and VP are separate enough to make this dual position almost impossible. Is this just some sort of honorary or is it for security clearance purposes, or is this just another example of how this VP is closer to being the actual Pres. than any other VP in history?

[McKenzie]

2. something stinks at the NYT - obviously

but we need to look real close at who knew what, at the highest levels, within that, now discredited, journal.

Miller might have been acting unilaterally...maybe not though.