Jesters on parade

During the first day of defense in the Libby trial some interesting morsels were served up. For instance, we learned about Robert "the grouch" Novak's first encounter with Joe Wilson (F=Fitzgerald, RN=Bob Novak):

F First meeting with Wilson

RN On MTP. The day of his op-ed.

F You did not become fast friends.

RN We did not exchange words. Most people in the green room quietly read. He was giving his opinion at some length about how things were done in the Clinton NSC, in a very loud voice, I thought that was an obnoxious performance.

That explains why Novak asked Armitage why the administration would send a guy like Wilson to Niger on a secret mission. Do tell. Perhaps related to that, we also learned that Armitage had mentioned to Woodward (well before he spoke with Novak) that, "CIA is not going to be hurt by this one".

Stir in Doug Feith's combative joust with Wolf Blitzer about the OSP and the picture becomes somewhat more clear.

Finally, we were reminded that Mr. Novak has been covering DC politics since 1963. Dang. I didn't realize he'd been around that long. He's been doing that gig longer than some people blogging this event have been alive.

MORE 2/12/07

Much buzz has been generated by the audio of Armitage's chat with Woodward. Some are finding it "damning" towards Fitz's case, but to me all it does is lead more credence to the notion that Joe Wilson was the pompous self-important wannabe. That doesn't refute his Niger claims, though.

One area that could be problematic for Bush is the conversation about yellowcake, since Armitage says the Niger stuff was left in the SOTU by "White House types" whereas Tenet had gotten it pulled from the earlier Cincinnati speech. As Woodward said, "weird". Think Tenet might have been a little pissed about having to apologize for the 16 words? Maybe he'll give us a clue in his book.

Still, the main takeaway was the cavalier way Armitage let on about Wilson's wife being an "analyst" (not covert like NPR reported today) and how they were working together, this after saying the CIA was not gonna take a hit.

A lingering question is whether Armitage told anyone else he forgot to mention. We still don't know how Miller came to write "Flame" and "Valery" in her notebook sometime before June 23rd. So far only one reporter has admitted knowing about Plame, Woodward, and he says he told Pincus, who doesn't remember. Wily veterans, both.