The Shuster / VanderHei Death Match

[Me.]

Steel Cage Death Match: VandeHei vs. Shuster
By Jane Hamsher

<<<snip>>>
“The Shuster Theory

Goes something like this: In the days leading up to Libby’s indictment, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed extreme skepticism about Karl Rove’s series of explanations due to the fact that Rove could never provide an adequate excuse for why the Hadley email was not produced in response to the January 2004 subpoenas until October of 2004. Robert Luskin goes to Fitzgerald and says, in essence, "aha! I’ll tell you why. I was having cocktails with my good friend Viveca Novak of Time Magazine in May of 2004 and she told me that everyone at Time knew that my client was Matt Cooper’s source. I went to my client who was shocked, shocked I tell you to hear this because he had no recollection of talking to Matt Cooper. This sent me on a search through Karl’s emails, and voila! The Hadley email. Karl then goes before the Grand Jury once again in October, his memory has been restored and it all makes perfect sense."

So Fitzgerald tells Time Magazine he wants to have a little chat with Viveca about conversations she had with Luskin starting in May 2004. Except when Viveca testifies, she thinks it’s quite probably March or earlier that the conversations with Luskin took place. According to Shuster, Fitzgerald continues to be quite troubled by the seven month delay between the time Luskin was evidently tipped off by Viveca and the time Karl had his memory restored.

The VandeHei Theory

In VandeHei’s reporting, the alibi provided by Viveca Novak is altered dramatically. Once again, in order to stave off indictment, Robert Luskin walks in to Patrick Fitzgerald’s office and says "have I got an excuse for you." His client Karl Rove first testified before the grand jury in February, 2004, at which time he did not indicate he’d ever had a conversation with Matt Cooper. Nonetheless, he would not offer Cooper a waiver of confidentiality. Cooper quite nearly went to jail and it was only after the judge held him in contempt of court and Time Magazine agreed to turn over Cooper’s notes that Rover’s memory was restored to him. Bless be.

In the VandeHei theory, Luskin tells Fitzgerald he was knocking back highballs with Viveca Novak in January of 2004 when Viveca spills the beans. Luskin gets a hold of himself, recovers from his shock and tells his client that people at Time Magazine think he was Matt Cooper’s source. Rove says "nonsense," goes before the grand jury and claims no knowledge of ever talking with Matt Cooper — exactly what he had told the FBI in October of 2003. Luskin says to Fitzgerald, "see? He didn’t change his story just because he knew Cooper was going to talk — he’d heard that story before and STILL went in and told the grand jury he’d never spoken with Cooper." Or something.

Only same problem — Viveca Novak testifies that she thinks she told Luskin in March. Oops. “ cont…

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/27/steel-cage-death-match-vandehei-vs-shuster/

*shadow government*

[Me.]

1. Bit More

"Two Theories

Now I myself have always given more credibility to the Shuster theory because if Luskin walked into Fitzgerald’s office claiming that he had talked to Viveca Novak in January of that year, why did Fitzgerald issue subpoenas for conversations starting in May? He’s a rather meticulous fellow who has done a very good job of limiting the scope of his inquiry to exactly the parameters he thinks he needs to explore. Porqoi?

My guess has always been that the VandeHei theory was a second attempt at spin. Once Viveca Novak’s recollections did not match up with Luskin’s and did not support the tight timeline Luskin was trying to sketch between the tipoff and the discovery of the Hadley email I have always thought it possible that they floated a second cover story to try and accommodate the earlier meeting, although it’s always sounded like patent bullshit to me. But you can still see the two theories cropping up in the reporting of each reporter today:” cont…

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/27/steel-cage-death-match-vandehei-vs-shuster/

*shadow governemt*

[AlCzervik]

2. David Shusters reporting on this has been excellent all along

some of Vandeheis has as well but i think his wife works for a goper and that gives me some pause, maybe unfairly but it does.

[Me.]

3. You're Right About The Wife

and I know how you feel. Every time I see Howard Kurtz I think he's been served kool-aid by his gopher wife. But I wonder if it's the wives or Woodward's influence at the Post which makes a difference in the slant of the reporting?

*shadow government*

[AlCzervik]

4. maybe all of the above, Woodward, Bradley married to Sally Quinn

what i really like about Shuster no matter what side he's reporting on is that he used to work for Faux like Keith and it seems that former Faux people are just a little more cynical than the rest of the corporate owned media cartel.

[Halliburton]

5. vandehei's reporting has been awful

the only thing that he has ever broke was the latest spin from Rove's lawyer!