During Wednesday's show, Chris Matthews summed up his feeling about Scooter Libby being pardoned by telling the faux Italian, Joe DiGenova that he feels Scooter should be pardoned because he was doing Bush's bidding...
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Download MATTHEWS: Gentleman, I agree with Joe diGenova. The president is going to pardon his friend. Anyway—maybe he should.---I think he was operating under the instructions of his government throughout this thing. Anyway—I‘m not sure you will agree with me on that, Joe, but I think he was doing the president‘s business.
I'd say he was doing the bidding of Dick Cheney as that's what all the evidence points to. I can't wait for Bush to tell the country that Libby was just doing what we wanted...Ben-Veniste slaps down most of diGenova's idiotic and lying approach to the Scooter case. You can always count on his ilk to repeat lie after lie. There is no doubt that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative, but they will keep lying about that part of the equation and then whine on about the no underlying crime myth. Joe diGenova flops when Tweety asks him about Clinton's underlying crime.
I spoke to an FBI agent ten years ago when someone tried to rip me off and he explicitly said I was under oath so tell the truth. Libby is a lawyer and knows the consequences in this regard. Right now he's feeling the results of his actions...
BEN-VENISTE: Hang on for a second. President Clinton did not obstruct anything in that investigation.
DIGENOVA: Whoa.
(LAUGHTER)
BEN-VENISTE: Those facts were all out there. This was—this—remember, this was a civil case in which he was being questioned now in a deposition by Mr. Starr, who had the facts in advance. It was a perjury trap.
Here, with respect to Mr. Libby, I haven‘t suggested that he knew that Valerie Plame was a covert agent, which everyone associated with this matter who has any knowledge of it has already acknowledged, but, rather, that it was casually done. It was simply not that important to find out, as Judge Walton said in his sentencing, somebody who is entrusted with this information, and then, casually, as a matter of collateral damage, simply is willing to out an undercover operative of CIA.
That is why CIA called for a criminal investigation right from the get-go of this. Now, the point...
DIGENOVA: The reason they called for an investigation was, they had to cover their fannies, because their tradecraft, in protecting her identity, was miserable. In addition...
BEN-VENISTE: It was supposed to protect it from the administration?
MATTHEWS: OK.
BEN-VENISTE: Come on, Joe.
DIGENOVA: No. No, no, no.
(CROSSTALK)
DIGENOVA: You‘re supposed to protect it from...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Gentleman, I agree with Joe diGenova. The president is going to pardon his friend. Anyway—maybe he should.
Well, thank you very much, Richard Ben—because I think it was...
(CROSSTALK)
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: I think he was operating under the instructions of his government throughout this thing.
Anyway—I‘m not sure you will agree with me on that, Joe, but I think he was doing the president‘s business.
