What's Next For Fitzgerald?
While we're on a "what's next" theme this morning, let's talk about Patrick J. Fitzgerald a bit.
There were a lot of leaks during his investigation, and it's likely some of them were from his staff. As Tina Brown wrote in an otherwise vile piece in today's WaPo:
So he ran a tight ship and set an example for how Special Prosecutors should behave. Similarly, the White House set an example for how an entity that's under investigation should handle a Special Prosecutor. A very few in the GOP hurled invective his way, but it did not come from the White House; it was an example we wish the Clinton administration had followed, an example we hope other administrations will follow.
Certainly, the White House had a hand in getting the story out on what a lying, self-serving untrustworthy human being Wilson is, but they kept their hands off his wife. Both actions were entirely appropriate. (Lefties will howl at the "hands off his wife" comment. But if there was a leak, that was it. Since then, Plame has not been the focus of their efforts. Even the detailed conservative analyses handled her in a periferal way, just describing how she got her hubby the yellowcake gig.)
But everything to this point has just been a test. Real life starts on Friday, the currently anticipated announcement date.
If there are indictments, will Fitzgerald continue on his current course, or will he melt into a media maniac in front of the cameras, overstating the case, using hyperbole, not the evidence, to promote his case, and sell out for the win? Will his client be justice or just Fitzgerald?
Hopefully, the White House message machine will still have Karl Rove at its helm come Friday. Dems will think I say this because we want someone mean and Machiavellian, but that's not it. Rove had driven the message on the Plame Game thus far, and the product has been good, any alleged initial leaks notwithstanding.
The far left is sufficiently rabid, the doubts about Wilson and the media are solidly in place, and the base is on board. Let's keep it that way -- and the way to do that is to handle it as a Rove would, not as a Carville would.
There were a lot of leaks during his investigation, and it's likely some of them were from his staff. As Tina Brown wrote in an otherwise vile piece in today's WaPo:
"Incorruptibility by money is the old story," the New Republic's Leon Wieseltier commented to me this week. "Now it's incorruptibility by media."
That's the new integrity standard: How long can you hold out? How long can you turn down the entreaties of the "Today" show? The seductive power of "deep background?" The lure of A-list dinner invitations?
So he ran a tight ship and set an example for how Special Prosecutors should behave. Similarly, the White House set an example for how an entity that's under investigation should handle a Special Prosecutor. A very few in the GOP hurled invective his way, but it did not come from the White House; it was an example we wish the Clinton administration had followed, an example we hope other administrations will follow.
Certainly, the White House had a hand in getting the story out on what a lying, self-serving untrustworthy human being Wilson is, but they kept their hands off his wife. Both actions were entirely appropriate. (Lefties will howl at the "hands off his wife" comment. But if there was a leak, that was it. Since then, Plame has not been the focus of their efforts. Even the detailed conservative analyses handled her in a periferal way, just describing how she got her hubby the yellowcake gig.)
But everything to this point has just been a test. Real life starts on Friday, the currently anticipated announcement date.
If there are indictments, will Fitzgerald continue on his current course, or will he melt into a media maniac in front of the cameras, overstating the case, using hyperbole, not the evidence, to promote his case, and sell out for the win? Will his client be justice or just Fitzgerald?
Hopefully, the White House message machine will still have Karl Rove at its helm come Friday. Dems will think I say this because we want someone mean and Machiavellian, but that's not it. Rove had driven the message on the Plame Game thus far, and the product has been good, any alleged initial leaks notwithstanding.
The far left is sufficiently rabid, the doubts about Wilson and the media are solidly in place, and the base is on board. Let's keep it that way -- and the way to do that is to handle it as a Rove would, not as a Carville would.
posted by Laer at 7:21 AM
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