Day: July 8, 2007

Nixon on Fred Thompson: “He’s Dumb as Hell”

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Pres. Nixon didn’t want Fred Thompson as minority counsel during the Watergate hearings because he doubted the mental capacity of the future actor and lobbyist.

Nixon to Haldeman: “Oh shit, that kid!” Haldeman: “Well, we’re stuck with him.”

Thompson, then 30, was appointed counsel by his political mentor, Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker, the top Republican on the Senate committee. Thompson had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville and had managed Baker’s re-election campaign…

Nixon was disappointed with the selection of Thompson, whom he called “dumb as hell.” Nixon did not think Thompson was skilled enough to interrogate unfriendly witnesses and would be outsmarted by the committee’s Democratic counsel.

This assessment comes from audiotapes of White House conversations recently reviewed by the Associated Press at the National Archives in College Park, Md., and transcripts of those discussions published in Abuse of Power: The New Watergate Tapes, by Stanley Kutler.

“Oh, s—, that kid,” Nixon said when told by his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, of Thompson’s appointment on Feb. 22, 1973.

“Well, we’re stuck with him,” Haldeman said.

The two were concerned that Thompson would be outgunned by much brighter lawyer John Dean, who was ready to desert their sinking ship. Appealing to Thompson’s strong partisan side helped him focus and prepare for the questioning.

Dean, the panel’s star witness, had agreed to tell what he knew if he was granted immunity.

Nixon expressed concern that Thompson was not “very smart.”

“Not extremely so,” [Nixon lawyer J. Fred] Buzhardt agreed.

“But he’s friendly,” Nixon said.

“But he’s friendly,” Buzhardt agreed. “We are hoping, though, to work with Thompson and prepare him, if Dean does appear next week, to do a very thorough cross-examination.”

Five days later, Buzhardt reported to Nixon that he had primed Thompson for the cross-examination.

“I found Thompson most cooperative, feeling more Republican every day,” Buzhardt said.

Later in the conversation, Buzhardt said Thompson was “willing to go, you know, pretty much the distance now. And he said he realized his responsibility was going to have to be as a Republican increasingly.”

That seems to be one lesson that got through Thompson’s thick skull and stuck.

Four Years Ago Today Leakin’ Libby Called Judith Miller

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The record is set straight yet again, this time by Clarence Page. But for all those folks who continue to leave comments on this site disputing what Libby did, I doubt it will help.

Weeks before Novak reported Plame’s name in his July 14, 2003, column, Libby revealed Plame’s CIA job in meetings with then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller on June 23 and July 8

…Valerie Plame was a covert agent under the relevant 1982 law that makes it a crime to disclose the identity of a covert intelligence officer. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald cleared up that dispute in a memorandum during the sentencing phase of Libby’s trial. “It was clear from very early in the investigation,” he wrote, “that Ms. Wilson qualified under [the 1982 law] as a covert agent whose identity had been disclosed by public officials, including Mr. Libby, to the press.”

…yes, Armitage did leak Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak, who was the first to report it to the public. But Armitage was not the first or the only leaker. Weeks before Novak reported Plame’s name in his July 14, 2003, column, Libby revealed Plame’s CIA job in meetings with then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller on June 23 and July 8. Novak also received confirmation of Armitage’s tip from Karl Rove, Bush’s senior political adviser. Rove also discussed Plame, without mentioning her name or covert status, with Matt Cooper, then of Time magazine…

Alas, Libby was snagged by a version of the old Watergate rule: It was not the initial “crime” but the cover-up that got him. Fitzgerald could not find enough evidence to meet the law’s high threshold of proof to prosecute the leak of Plame’s identity. Libby’s false statements did not help…

I sympathize with the public’s confusion about this. I blame the drumbeat from Libby’s supporters who don’t let facts get in the way of a lively argument. I thank the researchers at Media Matters for America, the liberal media watchdog site, for their assistance in helping me collect examples. They include:

– William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard on NBC’s “Today” show: “… I would remind Joe Wilson that Scooter Libby did not leak Valerie Plame’s name. Richard Armitage told Robert Novak, we now know …”

– Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in a Republican presidential debate: “I think the sentence was way out of line, … grossly excessive in a situation in which, at the beginning, the prosecutor knew who the leak was, and he knew a crime wasn’t committed.”

– Republican former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee in an ABC radio commentary: “The leaking of Valerie Plame’s name didn’t constitute a crime because she was not a ‘covered person’ under the relative criminal statue.”

And FYI, all you doubting posters. We really did land on the moon. And the Nazis purposefully killed millions of Jews in the 1930s and ’40s.