Funmurphys: the Blog

The Triumph of Hope over Experience

Posts Tagged Tom Maguire

The Talented Mr. Russert

Feb 14

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Current Events | No Comments

Tom Maguire of Just One Minute Fame has made the case that Tim Russert could have lied (OK, just let his memory go dim) in the Scooter Libby perjury case because he was covering for prior less than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth statements. Frequent commenter, Barney Frank, claims he should get credit for the white lie leading down a slippery slope of further cover up possibility. I’m sorry to tell both Mr. Frank and Mr. Maguire that there is a very fine movie that pre-dates Mr. Russerts legal entanglements, The Talented Mr. Ripley, that starts with a far more innocent misdirection and ultimately ends up in a far darker place than perjury. The movie is well worth seeing. The Libby Trial, not so much.

I have no idea if Russert was telling the truth about his conversation with Libby (Don Imus thinks he wasn’t), although his actual testimony was that while he doesn’t remember discussing Mrs. Wilson (which I can believe) with Libby, it was impossible that he told Libby about Mrs. Wilson. However, I can’t believe Mr. Russert couldn’t remember whether or not he told his boss he had cooperated with the FBI while NBC was fighting the grand jury subpeona. That I just simply can not believe. Nor can I believe that the FBI lost the notes from that initial conversation with Mr. Russert. Oddly enough, I haven’t seen either mentioned in conventional news outlets.

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Why Is Scooter Libby On Trial?

Feb 1

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Current Events | No Comments

I’ve promised one last Plame post numerous times, but the Scooter Libby trial requires comment — if only for the sheer fun of saying the defendant’s name. If you want the ins and outs, Tom Maguire is as always your man. I’m taking a big picture look.

First off, near as I can tell just about everybody who got roped into Fitzgerald’s investigation has had trouble with remembering what actually happened — who said what to whom when — or has changed their story, yet only Mr. Libby is on trial. Mr. Fitzgerald claims that is because Mr. Libby deliberately mislead him and impeded his investigation, but his investigation into what? He determined that no crime occured, and that determination had nothing to do with who leaked first, it had to do with Ms. Plame-Wilson’s status.

Secondly, Joe Wilson has lied long and loud and clear yet he suffers no penalty for doing so. I’m not even sure he actually went to Niger since he’s lied about everything else. And as it turns out, he is the guy who actually leaked his wife’s status as an ex-NOC — up until he yapped to Mr. Corn, his wife simply worked at the CIA. It’s bad enough Armitage, Fleischer, Rove and Libby let out that much, but Joe himself did the most damage.

Third and last, why is Fitzgerald and the government wasting time with this prosecution when real live CIA leaks that actually caused harm are going uninvestigated and unpunished?

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Political Strategist Straw Poll

Oct 27

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Inside Blogging, National Politics | No Comments

I’m holding a referendum on Tom Maguire:

Is Tom Maguire

[ ] Not Smart Enough to be a strategist for the Democrats, or

[ ] Too Smart to be a strategist for the Democrats.

I don’t want to bias the results by proclaiming my opinion, but let me just say that if Tom were to become a strategist for the Democrats the age of signs and wonders would clearly be upon us.

Of course he’s too smart to be a strategist for the Democrats; he’s too smart to be a strategist for the Republicans too. I could become President if Tom became my brain like a certain other, better known team (that actually is a team).

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How To Take A Vacation

Aug 21

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Inside Blogging | No Comments

I go on vacation for two weeks and the place goes dark, even though I asked my two fellow contributors, whose contributions I look forward to eagerly, to please please post while I was unable to (I’m sorry, but when I’m paying large sums of money to enjoy Europe, I’m not going to be spending my time at an internet cafe writing about it). Tom Maguire goes on vacation, and he cleverly has a new post every day via Typepad delayed postings that are just open threads, and a week later he has 305 comments on a single post, and they aren’t of the “Bush Sucks” caliber either. Yikes, thats more than half of the total comments for this blog. Still, I’m hoping that I had a better vacation — I rate mine as wonderful.

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The New York Times Is Worse Than Nixon

Jun 28

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Media Criticism | No Comments

Tom Maguire is all over the NYT’s latest “the public be damned” moment, and points the way to this funny satire by the New Editor entitled “NYT Announces Formation of Shadow Government”:

“Forgive me, I know this is pretty elementary stuff —  but it’s the kind of elementary context that sometimes gets lost on morons who don’t work for the New York Times, especially the knuckledraggers and mouth breathers who vote for Republicans,” said Keller. “And while we hesitate to preempt the role of legislators and courts, and ultimately the electorate, we just feel … well, that we’re smarter.””What he said,” said new shadow Secretary of Defense Paul Krugman.

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When Not Is News

Jun 13

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Current Events | 4 Comments

So when is something not happening news? When it’s Karl Rove Not being indicted. Why is his not getting indicted news? Because a lot of people on the left were convinced he would be, and since most people in the news media were also convinced (since there is of course no overlap between lefties and the news media according to both lefties and the news media) that he would be, his not being indicted is almost bigger news than if he had been. Tom Maguire, who’s been all over this story from conception, has the story. I’m still wondering who’s worse, Nifong or Fitzgerald.

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I Love To Laugh

Jan 30

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Media Criticism | No Comments

I cannot tell a lie – I’m simply filled with glee at thought of the Scooter Libby trial. At this point, I don’t care if Scooter is convicted or acquited, if he wrongly is set free or wrong is convicted — what I want is the press to get what’s coming to them. I neither know nor care about the guilt or innocence of Scooter — but I want to see the press pay for the crimes they’ve committed against the truth all this time. Yes, I understand that nobody from the fourth estate will be fined, let alone jailed, but just having to go into court and be exposed to the best disinfectant, sunshine to quote the St. Louis Post Dispatch editorialist (not plagiarize, since the Post editorial page no longer recognizes plagiarism).

Libby was indicted because his testimony didn’t agree with three reporters. So what else can his defense be but that he was telling the truth or at worse made a simple but unintentional mistake of recall based on what everybody actually knew at the time?

And the benefits are limited to just the people who are called to testify – the disappointment of those who aren’t might be palpable, as they too might be exposed like everyones unfavorite, David Gregory:

I’ll bet that the Libby defense team will want to chat with more than just Ms. Mitchell. That said, we should note that David Gregory may really be out of the loop – he chimed in with this:

GREGORY: And it is interesting–it’s also interesting, I should just point out, that nobody called me at any point, which is unfortunately…
WILLIAMS: Apparently not.
GREGORY: …not the point.
RUSSERT: Does anybody ever?
GREGORY: But I just wanted to note that.
RUSSERT: I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.

Stand tall, Stretch – you may be the last man standing if Russert, Mitchell and Williams have a ghastly experience at the Libby trial.

Yes, that is the unmistakable stylings of Tom Maguire. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants today.

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You Go George

Jan 10

Posted by Kevin Murphy in The War on Terror | No Comments

I’ve already explained my thoughts on the whole “domestic spying” controversy – it isn’t domestic, and why my phone/email communications can’t be searched by a US government agent without a warrant while crossing a border yet I and my property can be is beyond me.

But Tom Maguire does his usual treatment of subjects that fascinate him (he’s still even posting on the Plame kerfuffle, bless his heart) which means he’s thorough (but gentle, as a blogger should be). So we have not just one post, not just two posts, but three whole posts about it. He gives a hypothetical situation on why even the 72 hour retroactive warrent may not be good enough – and frankly why the whole framework of FISA may simply be OBT (Overtaken By Technology) and rendered obsolete. He takes us through the thoughts of the Democrats who were briefed (including the New York Times – you know, the media wing of the Mediacratic party of which the Democrats are the political wing (kind of like the IRA and Sinn Fein, but different because we don’t know which side of the media/democrats is calling the shots and we know the IRA is calling the shots (pun not intended and regretted)) and concludes:

Possible unifying answer – Harman, Rockefeller, and the editors of the Times are all dupes. Uh huh. Another possible answer is, they know enough about this program to know that there might still be some secrets there.Folks who think that the catalog of Atrios’s ignorance and the limits of his imagination define the boundaries of human endeavor will remain bemused by his question. For myself, I am convinced that I don’t know enough about this program to have any solid idea what security issues might be involved, so I am relying on the good, if unsteady, judgments of elected representatives such as Harman and Rockefeller.

 

It’s clear from the Brit Hume interview with Rep. Harman that Tom links to that she thinks that there are still secrets there:

HUME: You say it’s basically foreign. Were you not made aware individuals within the United States’ conversations with the suspected terrorists overseas were part of the program?HARMAN: It’s a classified program, so I can’t discuss what I was made aware of. But let me say…

HUME: Well, I know, but the…

HARMAN: No.

HUME: … toothpaste is out of the tube…

HARMAN: … it was made clear to me — no…

HUME: … when it’s known that that’s the case.

HARMAN: But it was made clear to me that conversations between Americans in America were not part of the program and require — and I think they do — a court warrant in order to eavesdrop on them.

And that’s been a point of confusion, because some of the press articles allege that this is a so-called, as you said, domestic surveillance program. That’s not what I believe it is.

HUME: Well, all right. So in other words, your belief is that this was indeed a case of Americans being picked up, perhaps within the United States, in discussions with people overseas.

HARMAN: Well, let’s just leave your comment there. I really don’t want to confirm what…

HUME: All right.

 

No Brit, the toothpaste isn’t all out of the tube, and even if it were, the information hasn’t been declassified yet. The New York Times may rule the Mediacrats, but they don’t have the power to declassify (something that Joe Wilson forgot when he blew the cover off his wife being a covert operative).

And it’s nice to know that Rep. Harman and I agree that this isn’t domestic surveillance, but foreign and international if need be.

The same papers that demand we search every cargo container entering the US and fault the administration for moving too slowly here are the very ones who are attacking them for listening in on foreign and international calls without a judge’s approval. Again, what gives phone calls such privileges? What makes a judge so special? Is a judge more sober than members of Congress?

Frankly, it’s nice to know the Bush administration was on the ball with this one. And I hope they catch the SOB who leaked and comprimised an ongoing and effective covert intellegence operation in wartime – a war that is has been and continues to be fought partly on American soil. Sometimes I think some people forget that.

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He’s Right, You Know

Dec 20

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Current Events | No Comments

Tom Maguire explains the symbolism behind Time’s photograph of the publicity twins, Joe and Valerie Wilson. The only thing he left out is that Joe not only outed Valerie in his NYT op-ed, he followed up with David Corn to make sure that nobody missed just how important she was.

Next up for Tom, Ulysses.

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