Larry Johnson: Washington Post Enables Toensing's Delusions

[understandinglife]

Washington Post Enables Toensing's Delusions

by
Larry C Johnson

Congratulations to Victoria Toensing, former Reagan Administration Justice Department official, for plumbing new depths of delusion and crazed fantasies in her latest Washington Post op-ed. Ms. Toensing's piece--Trial in Error--should have been titled, "I Am Ignorant of Basic Facts". She offers up two special gems:

1. Valerie Plame was not covert.

2. Ambassador Joseph Wilson (Valerie's husband) misled the public about how he was sent to Niger, about the thrust of his

3. March 2003 oral report of that trip, and about his wife's CIA status

Valerie Plame was undercover until the day she was identified in Robert Novak's column.

<clip>

Much more at the link: http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/delusional_rede.html#more

Let's all keep calling it what it is - Treason.

And, as I've conservatively speculated more than once since the day Novak's article appeared, even Cheney wouldn't have outed Valerie Plame Wilson unless Bu$h ordered it.

[hlthe2b]

1. Toensing's op ed didn't get much play on DU..

I have been waiting for a constitutional lawyer with creds to address it and rebut it in the post... Of course, WaPo may not be planning to publish a rebuttal to the lying Bushbot, Toensing...

Thank you Larry Johnson, for this..

[Jeanette in FL]

2. Excellent article

Thanks for posting it. Larry lays it all out for everyone to understand the case. Good for him. I didn't even know that Victoria Toensing even wrote the op-ed in the Post.

[peacetalksforall]

3. I've been thinking about doing a search to see if she might have

any new spin now that this trial is ending - or if she was going to say she was sorry for lying to us - or for just getting the story wrong. Thanks for posting.

She only has a few feet to go before she finally establishes herself as the most laughable lawyer in the country. I wonder if she gets paid for this.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Good post.

I sent it, and Larry Johnsons column over to Eric Alterman at Altercation at Media Matters. Hopefully it'll get some more attention there.

[KoKo]

19. Good for doing that...haven't read Alterman in awhile but will

go over there and check.

[peacetalksforall]

5. kick for all Toensing non-fans.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. check out this thread, and the 'comments' at the WashPost link

there are over thirty PAGES, and at least four of five are Toensing apologists!

opps...EDIT

meant to include the Post Editorial by that unconscionable liar, Toensing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021601705.html

comments link is at the bottom of the article, and at following post here

[DemReadingDU]

7. wow! here is the link

Trial in Error article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021601705.html


pages of comments...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/comments/display?contentID=AR2007021601705

[understandinglife]

8. Thank you!

Peace.

[DemReadingDU]

9. Larry Johnson posted on DailyKos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/18/142834/939


and also
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/2/18/15411/0972


and here too
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/feb/18/washington_post_enables_toensings_delusions

[understandinglife]

31. Thank you for these links.

Some worthwhile comments at:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/18/142834/939


Peace.

[DemReadingDU]

35. Larry Johnson replied to some postings at DailyKos

I find it is interesting to read comments at several websites :)

[cal04]

10. updated:Brent Budowsky: Dear Editor, Washington Post

From Brent Budowsky
February 18, 2007
To: Robert Kaiser, Washington Post

Mr. Kaiser, I am forwarding below the note I wrote to Messrs. Graham and Hiatt about Outlook's Victoria Toensing piece today.

With all due respect, I have long admired your work, but that piece today was the most egregious attempt at jury tampering that I have ever seen in this or any other town.

I spent six years at the core of the group writing the CIA Identities Law with its original sponsor, Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Setting aside my great differences with both Editorial and Op Ed pages at the Post on this case and Iraq in general, this piece was different. It was a clear attempt to influence the jury, after the defense rested and before the jury is given the case.

I predict the Judge will not be a happy camper, but beyond this, the piece was a shameless attempt to present a nullification defense to the jury, by an officer of the court who has worked for the Departement of Justice. It is attempt to bypass the judge and jury and present arguments to the jury, through the Post, that would not be admissable for law or fact, which also included factual inaccuracy.



This letter is on the record and I request that you publish it.
Sincerely,
Brent Budowsky
Former Legislative Assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Member of the
Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit.

rest of the letter
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/brent_budowsky_.html#more

[understandinglife]

15. SUPERB.

Very well done Brent!!!

Peace,
Bob

[Gabi Hayes]

17. I notice that it's at Johnson's blog. did the Post publish it?

My guess is no, and that they won't

this Toensing piece, and the one by York are stunning.

Woodward must be the de facto publisher, or something very close to that

[Tin Man]

16. Budowsky nails it - the OpEd is an attempt at *jury tampering* - K&R

[KoKo]

20. Yep...and remember she and her hubby Joe were after Clintons

from Day One with trash and crap in their constant harrassment. They must be on the Think Tank Payrolls...BIG TIME...

[Tin Man]

22. Oh yeah, they're definitely on the payroll

...and so too are the veritable herd of pissed-off neocon posters that replied to the accompanying blog.

No way those bloggers suddenly decided to start reading the WaPo. Smells alot like the "election protesters" (paid republican operatives) that interrupted the Miami-Dade recount during the 2000 election - now they're just operating online, where they have the best opportunity for reaching the jury members.

[Canuckistanian]

30. In the slim hope that jurors happen to read or hear about it

Jurors would have been sternly instructed to ignore news stories or accounts of this kind.

And usually, they will.

Jurors in a trial consider themselves experts in the subject matter and usually consider the evidence they hear very seriously. So they consider outside news reports "suspect" because the reporters don't have the same access they do to vital information.

So, if Toensing was trying to influence the jurors, she failed miserably.

[Tin Man]

18. .

dupe

[emulatorloo]

11. Firedoglake - "Washington Post has made the decision to be the outlet for the Libby PR machine "

Good scathing piece on this over at firedoglake

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/18/barbara-comstock-named-washington-post-editor/

Barbara Comstock Named Washington Post Editor?
By: Pachacutec

<snip>
Today the Washington Post chose not to offer an alternate editorial voice to balance Byron York's piece from yesterday, but instead, decided to go all in with a 2,200+ word opus of mass deception by hit piece flack hack Toensing, attacking Patrick Fitzgerald and Joe Wilson personally and falsely.

In the print version, the Washington Post chose to highlight the column with a half page graphic depicting Patrick Fitzgerald, Joe Wilson, "The Media," Ari Fleischer, Richard Armitage and the" Department of Justice" in mocked up mug shots. In case any readers lacked the stomach to get through Toensing's flying fecal word fog, the Post no doubt wanted to be sure everyone took the point, even those merely scanning past the Sunday Outlook section. The graphic itself is defamatory, above and beyond the insubstantial right wing rantings of the column itself.

As I've said, others will address more directly the lack of merit of the Toensing article itself (UPDATE: Larry Johnson delivers), but the first point to take is the Post's choice to serve as the sewage pipeline for Wilson and Fitzgerald smears.

Why?

Could it be that members of the editorial board of the Post want to further the idea that Libby, no matter what the jury may decide, has been an "innocent victim" of a prosecutor with an alleged "political agenda?"

Can it be that the endgame of the current political campaign against Fitzgerald, coordinated by Comstock and propelled by the Post, is to deflect attention from the nefarious acts of a corrupt administration and a complicit media establishment to sell the country on the Iraq invasion on false pretenses?

What might the Washington Post in particular have to gain by such a public relations cover up?<snip>

[Gabi Hayes]

13. last week's Frontline starts out with the Plame affair. see/listen here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/17/frontline-exposes-bushs-media-manipulation/

[grasswire]

12. I want to see her in an orange jumpsuit

Not only will it be ugly, but orange is so definitely not her color. I hate her and her husband.

[Gabi Hayes]

14. remember when he was on the old Geraldo show with David Brock

and turned bright PURPLE?

I copied the photos from mediawhoresonline, and have them somewhere

that was the best

I really thought he was going to aneurize right there.

Hope media matters runs something on her 'editorial'

[KoKo]

27. Oh...Yeah...this DU'er REMEMBERS.....thanks for Remembering/n/t

[grasswire]

48. that was one of cable TV's greatest moments

I remember it very well. Ol' diGenova blew up like a Ball Park frank.

[Olney Blue]

21. I read it while having my coffee this morning... and promptly

put it on the floor so that my puppy could urinate on it. (He actually defecated on it, but hey, he's a smart pup.)

[spanone]

23. Facts mean nothing if you chose to ignore them, I guess.

[antiimperialist]

24. The WAPO ITSELF called Plame "undercover" or "covert"

It's not the first time the Washington Post opinion page contradicts its own reporting. They are very inconsistent and therefore unprofessional.

Washington Post David Ignatius called Plame covert in this Feb. 2 op-ed:

"A glimpse of the pressure coming from the vice president's office emerges from a memo from CIA briefer Craig R. Schmall, after he was interviewed in January 2004 by FBI agents investigating the leak of Plame's covert identity"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101784.html


On Jan. 31, 2007, The Washington Post wrote that she was "UNDERCOVER":

"Libby is charged with lying to FBI agents and a grand jury and with obstructing justice in the investigation of who leaked undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's name to the media."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013000178.html

[Tin Man]

25. But the piece wasn't written by a WaPo staffer. It's an OpEd written by someone outside

WaPo was simply allowing alternative viewpoints to appear - that's one of the purposes of an OpEd page.

[emulatorloo]

26. not just any "outsider" -- search Media Matters "Victoria Toensing" and you will get an eyefull

Plus she was a big big anti clinton commentator during Monica (see below)

http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=Victoria+Toensing

Toensing offered false defense of Bush's warrantless surveillance program
Friday, January 20, 2006 2:37PM

Toensing "called in" to CNN, falsely equated Clinton's searches in Ames case with Bush wiretapping
Thursday, December 22, 2005 5:49PM

In WSJ op-ed, Toensing revisited familiar Plame falsehoods
Thursday, November 3, 2005 6:54PM

Conservative media figures repeated false claim that Libby indictment proved no "underlying crime" was committed
Monday, October 31, 2005 6:52PM

On imbalanced Hardball panel, Toensing repeated Plame investigation falsehoods and distortions
Thursday, October 13, 2005 6:11PM

Victoria Toensing used falsehoods, half-truths to defend GOP obstruction of Clinton's judicial nominees
Friday, May 20, 2005 8:01PM

Victoria Toensing failed to disclose friendship with "No Disclosure" Novak in Wash. Post op-ed
Friday, January 14, 2005 4:29PM

------------------------

http://www.gophypocrites.com/2005/12/hyp05052.html

VICTORIA TOENSING BUZZFLASH.COM's GOP HYPOCRIT OF THE WEEK December 23, 2005\

The GOP legal hit squad of Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing were all over the place during the Clinton impeachment drama speciously arguing why a president should be impeached over an act of fellatio. The husband and wife team of Republican lawyers were as ubiquitous as mud in a pig trough.

As one blogger noted, "During the 1990's, Victoria Toensing and her husband, Joe diGenova, made over 300 appearances on cable television in the service of the Republican agenda - often pimping for their friend Ken Starr and his $35 million investigation into President Clinton's sex life...."

But now that real crimes have been committed against the American people, the Munsters of the GOP are suddenly laughing off investigating Bush and Cheney, literally.

The gruesome twosome of diGenova and Toensing, also law partners, should be worn out. Toensing, in particular, just came off a whirlwind of media appearances claiming that Scooter Libby and Karl Rove aren't guilty of anything serious in outing a CIA operative. You got to hand it to them for being so fatuous with such feigned conviction.

---------------------------------

[Gabi Hayes]

37. yecchhh! some details here on how craven they are, including the

fact that they were "working" as investigative counsel for congress while all this was going on. dems were NOT happy with this, as they seemed to be spending all their time on TV, while billing huge bucks to congress

[antiimperialist]

28. And the goal of a Newspaper is to FIND OUT the truth

Instead of confusing the heck out of the Public with a million OPINIONS that contradict each other.

[Canuckistanian]

29. An excellent précis of the whole sordid story

Also a well deserved smackdown of Toensing. The INR alone is obvious enough.

The quote:

From what we find in our records, Joe Wilson played only a walk-on part in the Niger/Iraq uranium story.

From the INR memo, we see that Wilson was NOT sent by Plame, indeed, had to be persuaded to join the effort by higher-ups in the CIA.

But in his "walk-on part", he was able to prove the story false nonetheless.

[TacticalPeek]

32. K & R

:patriot:

[puebloknot]

33. *Some* Dare Call It Treason!

That would be the likes of us at DU, I should think.

Now we need to call Congress, day after day, and call it *TREASON*!!!

[understandinglife]

34. "Now we need to call Congress, day after day, and call it *TREASON*!!!"

Day After Day After Day After Day .... until justice is achieved.

Nothing less do the brave and honorable, like Valerie Plame Wilson, deserve from every one of us.

Peace, my friend,
Bob

[Gabi Hayes]

36. great story from Slate, ca THOTP days, on just HOW disgusting the

diGenova/Toensing creatures are:

http://www.slate.com/id/2304/

[mod mom]

38. from Newsweek we learn Rove and the WH knew a covert agent was about to be outed and d

did NOTHING!

We need to fan out and post this on other sites that may not be getting the full story. You are right, my friend, IT IS TREASON!

:hi:

[understandinglife]

41. "We need to fan out and post this on other sites that may not be getting the full story."

YES!!

:hi: my friend,
Bob


BE THE BU$H OPPOSITION - 24/7

[Garbo 2004]

39. My response to Vicky's lying screed is in another thread. But Vicky hides simple facts re: Plame:

1. Her identity was classified and the CIA undertook to keep her CIA affiliation secret: this was presented to the satisfaction of the court as noted in released court documents from 2004.

2. Valerie Wilson's employer of public record was Brewster-Jennings.

Classified identity + nongovernmental employer for matters of public record = "covert."

Oh, and #3 just for Vicky: According to Isikoff and Corn, Valerie Wilson traveled overseas under assumed names after Sept 11, 2001 as part of her work in the CIA's Joint Task Force on Iraq, whose mission was to gather intelligence on the status of Iraq's WMDs.

My other post that includes a snippet from the Corn/Isi book "Hubris" FWIW http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=239520&mesg_id=241632

[understandinglife]

40. "... whose mission was to gather intelligence on the status of Iraq's WMDs."

Implications, obvious.

Excellent post, Garbo!

Peace,
Bob


IT IS TRIBUNAL TIME IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

[understandinglife]

42. Link to Larry's post and comments at HuffPo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-c-johnson/washington-post-_b_41548.html


Peace.

[DemReadingDU]

43. Link to R J Eskow at HuffPo

Why is the Post giving her this platform again?

Toensing has a long history of writing highly partisan pro-Administration and anti-Democratic editorials. That's certainly her right. But using her legal credentials to distort the law and the facts in this case, as part of her ongoing partisan attacks on behalf of her political allies? That's less defensible.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/wapo-gives-platf_b_41523.html

[understandinglife]

44. "But using her legal credentials to distort the law and the facts in this case, as part of her

... ongoing partisan attacks ... == Should result in her being held in contempt of court by Justice Walton, just for starters, imho.

Thank you very much for the link!
Bob

[Gabi Hayes]

45. I'm at least agnostic, buy I just started praying for the first time since

I was a little toddler

[Skittles]

46. that repuke whore is still around?????

:puke:

[flyarm]

47. Toensing should be disbarred for this !!

that fucking %%##@$%% should lose her license to practice law for this!!

and i hope Fitz goes after her for it!!

this paragraph alone should see her lose her license to practice!


THIS GRAND JURY CHARGES PATRICK J. FITZERALD with ignoring the fact that there was no basis for a criminal investigation from the day he was appointed, with handling some witnesses with kid gloves and banging on others with a mallet, with engaging in past contretemps with certain individuals that might have influenced his pursuit of their liberty, and with misleading the public in a news conference because . . . well, just because. To wit:

UNBELIEVABLE that an attorney would attack and accuse a prosecutor of misconduct..when she isn't looking at all the facts fitz is sitting on...the judge ought to go after her!!

i would like nothing more than to see that bitch silenced..for once!!

fly

[DemReadingDU]

49. Jeralyn Merritt about Toensing

Former prosecutor Victoria Toensing has an op-ed in the Washington Post (debunked nicely by Larry Johnson) outlining her case for Scooter Libby's acquittal. In two words: jury nullification.

(Thanks, Victoria, for attempting to personally smear the prosecutor on the eve of closing arguments. I bet if a true criminal defense lawyer wrote an article like that you'd accuse him or her of trying to influence the jury pool.)

Toensing is playing to the court of public opinion here, not the court of law. By setting forth her grounds for indicting others in the case, she's advocating exactly what Patrick Fitzgerald has said he's on guard against: the defense playing the jury nullification card, arguing that it's not fair Libby was charged while others weren't.

full essay...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeralyn-merritt/the-worst-argument-for-li_b_41564.html

here too...
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/18/the-worst-argument-for-libbys-acquittal/

[Tennessee Gal]

50. kick