WP Froomkin: "The Memo That Won't Quit" (It's getting some legs)

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/05/17/BL2005051700703.html

The Memo That Won't Quit

By Dan Froomkin
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; 12:27 PM

Some two weeks after it was first leaked in London, a British memo about the run-up to war in Iraq is finally generating a serious amount of attention from the American media.

The memo, which is the report of a high-level meeting in July 2002, contains the assertion that the Bush White House was set on invading Iraq long before it was ready to say so publicly, and that it was in fact "fixing" the intelligence around its policy goals.


Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was asked about the memo, and weighed in with a passionate but generic denial. And this week's New York Review of Books is out with an exegesis of the memo, sure to incite the intellectual left.

The liberal blogosphere has been insisting that the memo comprises a "smoking gun" -- which, of course, it doesn't. It's basically hearsay, albeit high-level hearsay.

But while that's not enough to convict, it's certainly enough to cause the press to revisit the issue.

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[Teaser]

1. It's not getting any legs.

Seriously...we've seen this before. Inquiries will hit a stonewall and the cowed press will drop it after a few days.

[sabra]

2. This one seems different!

At least I am hoping so....

[rodeodance]

4. well, it kinda waddles along in the press (and a few stories like KO in th

media)---yes, the waddle is slow. and am not sure it will continue.

[Poiuyt]

7. What makes this different is that there is some concrete proof

I think this is the first time that we've had something other than heresay. I don't know if it will go anywhere either, but at least there is something on paper.

[Protagoras]

3. Wonder how he's catagorize the Watergate investigation

not enough to convict...maybe we should get around to revisiting the issue at some point? Enough with the Pap...start shouting it like it is on PAGE 1!

We need a Media in this country. I'm sick of 99 channels of E!

[liberal N proud]

5. The little memo that could!

It took time before anyone reported Watergate as well.
Keep the pressure on the media.

[NorCalDem]

6. Its too big to slip quietly into the night

It keeps rearing it's ugly head. The administration knows this, and they are scared for once. We have to keep emailing news stations, newspapers, etc. to tell them to talk about it. I also liked the idea of printing 100's of copies, and pasting it on every telephone pole in your town/city/cowpatch(if you live in a red-state). I would do that, but I live in Berkeley, so I'm not too worried about turning the 2 or 3 conservatives in town :)

[Jo March]

8. You are right - we gave it legs and have to insure that it keeps the legs

We do have to continue to blast this to the media over and over and over and over and over and - well, you get the idea.

We can't let this one drop. We have to continue to push because we're screwed if we don't.