Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Woodward's New Scoop

by BooMan
Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 01:12:00 PM EST

More interesting than Bob Woodward's latest scoop is figuring out why he published it now. Woodward reports on a highly classified briefing that DCI Hayden gave last November to members of the Iraq Study Group. Some members of the study group let Woodward see their notes and agreed to be interviewed (both on and off the record). It's kind of hard to have a study group of distinguished Americans like Sandra Day O'Connor and James Baker if they are going to blab to the press about their briefings from the Director of Central Intelligence. It's pretty bad form and will discourage any future efforts to do studies like this in the future. But...well...they did blab, so what did they say?

Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House.
For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a "Churchillian" vision of "victory" in Iraq and defend the country's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. "A constitutional order is emerging," he said.
Later that morning, around the same conference table, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," adding that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around," according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants.
"The government is unable to govern," Hayden concluded. "We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function."
Later in the interview, he qualified the statement somewhat: "A government that can govern, sustain and defend itself is not achievable," he said, "in the short term."

So, basically, they told Woodward that the President was badly out of touch and that he was ignoring his own intelligence. This is news?

Why are they sandbagging Mr. Bush? This is just one more piece of evidence that the Establishment has decided that the country cannot face its difficulties under the present leadership. It's exactly what I predicted back in December when I realized that Bush was going to ignore the Baker-Hamilton report. But the Republicans are just dragging their feet in coming to the inevitable conclusion. Bush must go.

Woodward's New Scoop | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Woodward's New Scoop (4.00 / 4)

This is only the Iraq Study Group settling accounts with prez for not listening to them. Woodward has evidently received permission to fire the opening salvos. Imagine, the Iraq Study Group leaking confidential presidential and CIA information to a man as slimy and slippery as Woodward. Are they now responsible for the illicit disclosure of such information? Some kind of betrayal seems involved No, no, none of this will, in any way, move us a step closer to the end of the war of occupation in Iraq. Sandra Day O'Conner needs to learn humility and to keep her trap shut: she installed this unelected president, she presided over the judicial coup that put him where he is, she has yet to settle accounts with the People. If she had been working on the Supreme Court of any country outside the U.S., all the pundits and policy makers in the U.S. would be screaming about how the 'rule of law' had been abandoned to put a political favorite in office: 'That could never happen here.'

Withraw completely and unconditionally from Iraq today!

by Quentin on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 02:08:41 PM EST

Re: Woodward's New Scoop (4.00 / 3)

Quentin, I agree!

"Woodward always does his job..."??? WTF??? You're kidding, right?

His fawning books about Bush...back when it was personally profitable for him while Bush was still popular (with the Kool-aid drinkers)...and his deliberate silence on being told by Armitage before anyone else about Valerie Plame Wilson....his silence for YEARS thereafter while the rest of the world watched the Fitzgerald grand jury deliberations....

He is an ACCOMPLICE to BUSH CRIMES!!!

He is the LEAD example of the MSM's collusion with the powerful.

He is a loathsome profiteer off this war.....and he has blood on his hands.....of a lot of American kids.

Do NOT tell me Bob Woodward always does his job.

He's a lying, cowardly opportunist making money off crime ...WAR CRIMES.

And, he's at it again here.

by Sandy on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 02:16:43 PM EST

Exactly, dearie (none / 0)

Please excuse me for upsetting you.

by Alice on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 03:03:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You write" (4.00 / 2)

More interesting than Bob Woodward's latest scoop is figuring out why he published it now.

Simple.

Figuring out why Woodward does ANYTHING is simple.

He works for a particularly powerful segment of the PermaGov. Intel department. He does NOTHING of any real consequence unless told to do so.

WHY?

Butch and Cheney disobeyed. And/or they failed.

Now it's time to clean house. Without making the Intel department look bad.

I TOL' Ya, Dick!!! You shouldn'ta messed with that whole goddamned Plame thing. That got them REALLY mad!!! Why...they even used one of their Nightline credits. Made a great production with masks an' altered voices an' all...

You blew it, Dick.

And now they're after your ass with the DC Madam thing, too.

You're fried, Pops.

Fried.

You and your little dickhead puppet.

"DC Madam thing???", you may ask.

"WHAT DC Madam thing?"

This one.

Hookergate II: The Senator and the Veep

Providing comic relief in a Democrappy Congress that doesn't have the filibustering balls to Just Say No to Perma-War or the wit or wisdom to impeach the Bush Crime Family for their multiple murderous atrocities Brothers & Sisters, Lovers & Sinners, please put your hands together for Republican Senator David Vitter of the Great State of Louisiana, caught with his hand in D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey's delicious yummy cookie jar.

---snip---

Well, in any case, chalk another one up for the DC Madam catching another fairly big fish: a U.S. Senator. Of course, she's already caught and pan-fried former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias who likened procuring one of Palfrey's Pamela Martin & Associates' call-girls to ordering pizza.

And then there's that even bigger fish, possibly the biggest fish of them all, certainly the biggest Dick, and I'm not talking about the size of his genitalia. That's right, back in mid-May, you read in this bloggamy that the Vice (as in "criminal") President may patronize prostitutes. When he was CEO of Halliburton he maintained a residence off Chain Bridge Road in the Ballantrae neighborhood in McLean, Virginia, which had a phone number that appears numerous times on the DC Madam's John List.

Though just the thought of the creepy Veep having any kind of sex is like something out of Abu Ghraib, we all know that tales of illicit sex wake up the sleeping populace, while this atrocious illegal war, the loss of civil liberties and all of Cheney's other crimes barely seem to disturb the Great American Slumber Party. Thus the mainstream media, who are the real hookers to this Dick and his government/corporate cronies, has kept this story fairly under wraps for the past couple of months.

But more news is breaking. Apparently, the phone records are confirmed to be Cheney's. It's just a question of whether he got the blowjobs (or whatever) himself, or he arranged for (i.e., pimped) a little adult entertainment for "foreign clients." Whether this Dick is a John or a Pimp, he broke the law that he is so adamant about everybody else obeying. Will he defend himself by asserting that "the vice presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch," and is therefore exempt from rules governing either?

Yup.

Payback is a bitch.

Ain't it?

AG

Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.-Mae West

by Arthur Gilroy (arthurgilroy<at>earthlink.net) on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 05:37:10 PM EST

Yes. (none / 0)

Bob Woodward always does his job. Maybe we need him to convince Wolf Blitzer.

by Alice on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 01:56:44 PM EST

CYA (none / 0)

Why are they sandbagging Mr. Bush?

This is a CYA operation, so that when the inevitable meltdown comes they can pretend they aren't responsible.

by AliceDem on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 02:14:34 PM EST

No problem! (none / 0)

I DO tend to get incensed by people like Woodward! There are just SO MANY of these crooks to keep up with!

by Sandy on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 04:16:17 PM EST

Re: No problem! (none / 0)

I don't blame you. It IS hard to keep from going berserk over these people. I usually descend into sarcasm.

We are all just so extremely pissed and wondering why nothing happens. I'm for sure not gonna do anything, just trying to keep cool and watch the show.

I don't want to see anybody consumed by anger, it's happening way too much these days.

by Alice on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 05:14:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Woodward's New Scoop (none / 0)

Impeaching Cheney and Bush is a moral imperative.

All Progressives need to become ardent supporters of the Second, as well as the , First Amendment

by phronesis (swwiener@gmail.com) on Thu Jul 12th, 2007 at 04:22:28 PM EST

Woodward's New Scoop | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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