Media Wanted Novak, Miller Went to Jail

RUSH: To Santa Barbara, California next on Open Line Friday. Hi, Ann. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Thank you. I’m just so tickled to be able to talk to you. Yay, G’itmo Club.
RUSH: Thank you very much. (laughing)
CALLER: I’m very concerned — and I appreciate being able to ask you — why Judith Miller is being held so accountable and being incarcerated when Robert Novak refused to reveal his information and he published it, and it’s just obscene.
RUSH: Well, I’m glad. (sigh) You know, my problem? I went long in the last segment. My answer, I may not be able to squeeze this all in this segment, Ann, so you got to promise me that you’ll keep the radio on for it because it’s a great question. I’m just guessing here but let me try to put things in order. For me, the great irony of this is that the media requested this special counsel. When Novak wrote his piece, the media demanded he reveal his source and he wouldn’t. No journalist does. But since he’s a conservative — and let me tell you something, Ann, the Washington press corps despises Robert Novak. He’s been there 40 years or 35 or 75, whatever it is. He’s better than any of them, but he’s conservative and they hate him. So he runs the story, and the media demands an independent counsel, and they got their independent counsel, and look where this independent counsel has taken the case. It is apparent that there are no crimes that have been charged or even alleged here. Well, maybe alleged.
But it appears that the leak of Valerie Plame’s name was not in itself a crime. It’s a very high standard, a high test you have to meet. I think what’s going on now. The reason Judith Miller is in jail is not because she committed a crime. She’s in contempt of court. She’s refusing to testify before the grand jury. A lot of other people have testified. I think what this counsel, this independent counsel, is looking at is perjury. I think it’s a Martha Stewart-type case. I think he wants all these people to come in and testify who their source was, who it wasn’t, see where they got their data, to compare their notes, to see who is lying to him in the grand jury, who is committing perjury — and Judith Miller won’t talk so she’s going to jail. She’s not in jail for not giving up her source so much, and we don’t know what Novak has told the grand jury. We don’t know what he’s told the grand jury or independent counsel, so it’s premature to assume he should be in jail, too.
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