Saturday, October 22, 2005

Hey, Who's That Under That Bus?

Josh Marshall analyzes an article in today's Los Angeles Times that details Scooter Libby's obsession with Joe Wilson. Here's what Marshall has to say:
But if you read the LAT story closely you see that the authors were able to interview multiple White House staffers (seemingly all or most former ones) and were apparently provided with a sheaf of documents illustrating Libby's near-obsessive Wilson-monitoring.

[snip]

So, a lot of access to former White House staffers in on key meetings and actual documentary evidence of what Scooter was up to, what his efforts produced. That sort of access ain't easy to come by and it's seldom accidental.

This certainly seems like an attempt to pin this whole thing on Libby.

Leaks like that won't affect Fitzgerald; they're not intended to. They're aimed at shaping perceptions of indictments if they come down. If Libby and Rove are indicted, then, yes Rove got caught up in it. And it shouldn't have happened. But the whole unfortunate mess was spawned by the bitter Libby-Wilson antagonsim.
It wasn't something that involved the whole White House team, not something characteristic of how it functions.
And I, for one, an inclined to agree: it's already out there that Scooter is going to be indicted and there's little chance he won't. But folks don't write books about Scooter Libby. He may be the Sith Lord's apprentice but he's expendable.

But we shall see...