PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY….On Tuesday, the prosecution in the Scooter Libby trial introduced into evidence an internal White House note written by Dick Cheney in September 2003. This was right after Scott McClellan had told the media that Karl Rove hadn’t been involved in leaking Valerie Plame’s name, and Cheney wanted McClellan to issue the same denial for Libby, who at the time was his chief of staff. Here’s the text of the note:
Has to happen today.
Call out to key press saying same thing about Scooter as Karl.
Not going to protect one staffer & sacrifice the guy
this Pres.that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.
So who was it that asked Libby to take the lead in talking to the press about Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger? Apparently it was “this Pres,” but immediately after writing this Cheney decided the passive voice was a better bet. Even in a note to McClellan, it was best not to admit that Bush had ever been involved. Plausible deniability, you see.
