Woodward and Plamegate; What Does It Mean?

It became public yesterday that Bob Woodward of the Washington Post claims to have learned of the name Valerie Plame prior to Scooter Libby giving the name to Bob Novak. This was apparently considered "background" for a book that Woodward was to write, and not for use in the Washington Post. What does mean to the Libby indictment, in specific, and the entire investigation, in general? The simple answer is very little, if anything.

If you listen to the lawyers for Scooter Libby or to the mainstream press talking heads, you would expect that Patrick Fitzgerald, any day now, to crawl on his knees to Libby, drop the indictment and apologize for tarnishing his sterling image. Well, it hasn't happened yet and it isn't going to happen ever, so those interested in seeing the Plame investigation fail are going to be sorely disappointed. The main-stream media rushed to break a story, as usual, and missed the key ingredient in doing so. Nothing surprising there, in fact it is becoming the norm rather than the exception. Here's the Real Deal.

People are failing to give Fitzgerald the credit he deserves. He is a genius, and is not about to jeopardize the investigation by making "silly" mistakes. If one listens to what Fitzgerald actually said versus what the Libby lawyer's are saying that he said, and what the media is focusing on, you will find a key difference. Libby's lawyers are shouting that since Fitzgerald said that "Libby was the first person to give the name of Valerie Plame to a reporter," the case goes away. In fact, what Fitzpatrick said was, " Mr. Libby was the first person 'known' to reveal the name of Valerie Plame to reporters...." Libby's lawyers have simply removed the word "known" from Fitzgerald's actual statement. That word makes all the difference, and does nothing to reflect on the strength of the case against Libby, regardless of what the Libby defense camp wants you to believe. The statement itself in fact has little bearing on anything to do with Libby, but could in fact point towards what I said yesterday, that Fitzgerald is about to strike again. Look at it this way.

If Fitzgerald's case rested upon whether or not Libby was the "first" person to reveal the name of Plame to the press, he simply would have closed up shop and gone home one week after indicting him. He did not. The Libby indictment is about the fact that Libby lied about his involvement, not when his involvement occured. Fitzgerald did, in fact, rent larger office space just prior to the indictment. This indicates that he is in it for the long haul, and will not stop until he has the truth.

Fitzgerald learned of the Woodward comment one week after the indictment of Libby. That should give those in the White House a clue that Fitzgerald is after bigger fish, rather than comfort in thinking that Fitzgerald missed something and misspoke. In fact, the night before the indictment, Woodward was on Larry King's show spouting off about how this whole case was all about nothing. Did this stop Fitzgerald from issuing the indictment? No, and like I said at the time, he had just begun.

If those in the White House want to look at Woodward's statements as a silver bullet, by all means let them do so. What it should show them is that there is yet another person with a problem, and that person may well lie at the very core of this case. It will lead to the FIRST PERSON to leak the information, and I would not want to be that person. Do you hear me, Mr. Cheney? You will know who that is when Patrick Fitzgerald makes the statement that the Libby lawyer's say he made yesterday, "that ????? WAS THE FIRST PERSON who leaked the name of Valerie Plame to the press," and not ".....the first person known to have leaked..." A subtle but vital difference.

I have no idea why Bob Woodward has done what he has done throughout the course of this investigation. I do have suspicions. I think that Woodward has never gotten over the "Watergate Glory" that he has built his career on. I think that he is afraid that someone other than himself will finally break this thing open, that it will be bigger than Watergate, and that he believes he will be forgotten as "the Watergate man" who played a large part in unraveling that scandal. Someone else will become the "Woodward and Bernstein" of the 21st Century. And I believe that his ego cannot stand this thought.

I also believe that Mr. Woodward is taking a very serious risk. It appears that he is attempting to aid this administration to keep this story smaller than it should be, claiming to have told people things that they don't remember hearing, essentially doing the same things that put Libby where he is today. For his sake, I hope that he is not perjuring himself, simply to stay on the top of the "investigative journalist" heap. The groundwork for such a charge may have begun to be laid yesterday when Mr. Woodward spent two hours with the Prosecutor. Or, maybe Woodward is the key to the lock on the door that Fitzgerald is attempting to open. Either way, we should have some answers pretty quickly. Perjury is something that Patrick Fitzgerald takes very seriously. If you don't think so, just ask Scooter Libby.