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Category: viveca novak

DEC

2005

Fitzgerald Investigation and the Legacy of Watergate

Umpireleakbaseballdirteyeswhatthefuck The latest head-scratching twist in the Fitzgerald investigation unfolded over the weekend, when Time reporter Viveca Novak wrote about her grand jury testimony informing the prosecutor of a conversation that she had with Karl Rove lawyer Robert Luskin. After learning that Fitzgerald might be calling her to testify, wrote Novak:

"I hired a lawyer ... but I didn't tell anyone at Time," Novak wrote of the days leading up that interview. "Unrealistically, I hoped this would turn out to be an insignificant twist in the investigation and also figured that if people at Time knew about it, it would be difficult to contain the information, and reporters would pounce on it."

With this, she becomes the second high-profile journalist to see the public's right to know as an obstacle and not a cause. Bob Woodward, still inspiring a whole generation of reporters.

[John Gress/Reuters]

Reporter Didn't Tell Editors About Probe [AP]

Daily Briefing: The New Caliphate

• Time reporter Viveca Novak says Karl Rove was the likely source of a July 2003 article about Valerie Plame. Novak: "I remember [Rove's lawyer] looking at me and saying something to the effect of 'Karl doesn't have a [Matt Cooper] problem. He was not a source for Matt.' I responded instinctively, thinking he was trying to spin me, and said something like, 'Are you sure about that? That's not what I hear around Time.' He looked surprised and very serious." [Time, NYT, WSJ]
• Sen. Frist threatens to use the "nuclear option" to save Samuel Alito from a filibuster. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): "We're not close to a deal." [WP, NYT, LAT]
• White House flack Trent Duffy: "What you will see more of next year is the president going back to the basics -- winning the war and growing the economy and creating jobs." [WT]
• Sen. Clinton's quiet, centrist approach to Iraq "is drawing increasing scorn from liberal activists." [WP]
• Ronald Brownstein on Alito's abortion memos: "It's still not clear these disclosures will seriously threaten Alito's confirmation. And if they do not, both sides might need to rethink basic assumptions about the politics of the Supreme Court." [LAT]
• Gov. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tours battleground states for a head-start on '08. Warner: "As Democrats, what we have to do is put forward ideas and candidates that can win in places like Florida, that can win in places like Virginia." [NYT]

• Administration officials warn of impending caliphate; Rumsfeld says Iraq could "serve as the base of a new Islamic caliphate to extend throughout the Middle East, and which would threaten legitimate governments in Europe, Africa and Asia." [NYT]
• House and Senate have different views to the future of Medicaid. [NYT]
• Attorney, professor, and author John Yoo believes "the constitution itself gives the president lots of leeway, allowing him to invade Iraq without congressional permission and to disregard such treaties as the Geneva Convention." [LAT]
• Gov.-elect Corzine's appointment of Robert Menendez to his N.J. Senate seat fulfills childhood dream. [USAT]
• Investigators conclude John Snow's ownership of bonds did not represent a conflict of interest. [WSJ]

DEC

2005

Daily Briefing: Fundraising 'Magnet'

• Congress is expected to vote next week on the renewal of the Patriot Act; Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) threatens to use the filibuster. [WP, NYT, USAT, WT]
• House votes mostly along party lines to pass more tax cuts. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Administration linked Iraq and al Qaeda with information received from prisoner who "fabricated [the tie] to escape harsh treatment"; Democrats seek access to White House documents about prewar intelligence. [NYT, NYT]
• Time reporter Viveca Novak meets with Patrick Fitzgerald regarding her conversations with Karl Rove. [NYT]
• Second business partner of Jack Abramoff is near a plea agreement with prosecutors. [WP]
• American and Saudi officials wrote about Osama bin Laden's interest in using civilian aircraft back in 1998. [NYT]

• Bush is welcomed by Republican candidates as fundraising tool; president has helped raise over $50m this year. [WP]
• European officials seem satisfied with Rice, but questions about treatment of detainees remain. [WP, NYT]
• Democrats request more papers about Samuel Alito's tenure as a federal judge and government lawyer. [WP]
• Democrats are rethinking their presidential primary schedule. [WP]
• Republicans in Texas aren't worried about DeLay or 2006. [NYT]
• Rumsfeld has no plans to retire. [NYT]

DEC

2005

Inside the Bubble: The Attack of the Giant Blog Words

• Animatronic anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff (hybrid models with auto-shutdown and cruise control) will continue to host ABC's "World News Tonight," winning out over standard transimission hostbot Charlie Gibson, who still runs on diesel. [ABC]
• Hacktasatic Jon Friedman calls "The Week" journalism's "first blogazine." No, wait -- it's a magalog! A Zlog? What does that make "The Best Week Ever"? A blogedy? And the "Nightly News" -- that's a blogcastnewslog. CNN's Blog Report is a bloport. And Times Select still sucks. [CBS Marketwatch]
• Anchlogger Brian Williams is a "dog person." HOW CAN HE BE A BLOGGER THEN? [WaPo]
• FishbowlDC on the quitting/re-hiring of Postie Gabe Escobar: "Escobar is one of the Post's only Hispanic editors (the only other one we can think of is Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Assistant Managing Editor/Sports." National Book Award Finalist American Chica author and editor of Washington Post Book World Maria Arana, on the other hand, is just a girl who likes to read. [Fishbowl DC]
• Howie Kurtz on why the MSM blogs (Mblogsmers): "Actually, we're just trying to look cool." [WashingtonPost.com]
• David Corn hearts Viveca Novak, can't guard her husband. Perhaps her conversation with Rove's lawyer sparked a revelation: "maybe my client did not tell me everything." [DavidCorn.com]

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DEC

2005

Daily Briefing: 'Manna from Heaven'

• Lawyers at the Justice Department warned that Rep. Tom Delay's (R-Texas) redistricting plan was illegal under the Voting Rights Act but senior officials vetoed their findings. [WP]
• Senate Armed Services Committee seeks answers about Pentagon's propaganda campaign in Iraqi media. Scott McClellan: "We're very concerned about the reports. We have asked the Department of Defense for more information." [NYT]
• Revelations about Samuel Alito's views on abortion "are stiffening Democratic resistance and complicating the nomination for moderates in both parties." Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.): "Certainly the chance of a filibuster is greater today than it was the day Alito was nominated." [WP, NYT]
• Conversation in 2004 with Time's Viveca Novak is said to have motivated Rove to change his testimony in the leak investigation. [NYT]
• Prosecutors are investigating whether Jack Abramoff "brokered lucrative jobs for Congressional aides at powerful lobbying firms in exchange for legislative favors." [NYT]
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) breaks from most in her party with support of Rep. John Murtha's (D-Pa.) plan for withdrawal. Strategist: "If Karl Rove was writing the timing of this, he wouldn't have written it any differently, with the president of the United States expressing resolve and the Democratic leader offering surrender. For Republicans, this is manna from heaven." [WP, WT]
• Bush marks World AIDS Day: "I believe America has a unique ability, and a special calling, to fight this disease." Dean says the administration has "stood in the way of important global efforts to curb this disease." [WP]

• Republican governors ready for challenging '06 campaigns. [LAT]
• Ken Mehlman urges opposition to anti-immigrant policies: "Throughout our history, there have always been Americans who believed that coming to these shores was a right reserved only for them and their ancestors, but not for others. . . that was wrong then and those who argue that now are wrong today." [WP]
• Bush, honoring Rosa Parks, supports extension of the Voting Rights Act. [AP]
• Murtha describes the Army as "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth." [WT]
• Committees that former Rep. Randy Cunningham was a member of start investigations into his conduct. [USAT]
• White House works for bipartisan support of trade deals. [WSJ]
• The NSA "deliberately skewed" evidence to claim that North Vietnamese ships had attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964. [NYT]
• White House officials have received $2.3m worth of free travel over the past six years, study finds. "These trips are often indirect conduits to influence policy," says director of watchdog group. [NYT]
• Federal judge sides with the FBI, noting that running a fake candidate on election day was necessary to combat corruption. [WP]
• Bush was summoned for Texas jury duty. McClellan: "The president has other commitments." [NYT]

NOV

2005

Daily Briefing: Negative Thinking

• Viveca Novak's testimony is said to be central to Karl Rove's defense. Source: "This is what caused [Patrick Fitzgerald] to hold off on charging." [WP]
• Interest groups and individuals are increasingly "concluding that the commingling of money and politics has gone too far"; lobbyists and lawmakers are "now facing what could be a wave of prosecutions in the courts and an uprising at the ballot box." For the first time, the "public's negative feelings exceeded its positive feelings about both political parties at the same time." [WP]
• Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.) resigns after pleading guilty for accepting $2.4m in bribes: "In my life, I have known great joy and great sorrow. And now I know great shame." [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT, USAT]
• Bush promotes his guest-worker program and advocates border security measures: "The American people should not have to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful society. We can have both at the same time." Proposals face uphill battle in Congress. [WP, NYT, WSJ, WT, NYT, USAT]
• Cheney's office has not been forthcoming with disclosure of travel expenses. Center for Public Integrity: "[T]he public is kept largely unaware of where he and his staff are traveling, with whom they are meeting and how much it costs, even though tax dollars are covering the bill." [WP]
• Administration moves to hype the advances of the Iraqi Army, "a move designed to shore up domestic support for the Iraq war while setting the stage for a reduction in U.S. military troops next year." [WSJ]

• Alito supported expansion of law enforcement powers as attorney in the Reagan Justice Department. [NYT, LAT]
• Parental notification case reopens abortion issue for Supreme Court justices. [NYT]
• Rice plans on returning to Stanford in '08. [USAT]
• Closet session of the Senate was hardly unprecedented. [WP]

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