“How could you say that? How could you say she wasn’t covert?”
“Well, because she wasn’t. I wrote the statute.”
“I’m not asking for your credentials.”
“Well, my credentials are how I know. I wrote the law. She was not covered by the law.”
The bottom line is if she were covert — and I don’t know if Ms. Toensing will get around to saying this. She’s very cool, calm and collected — and Nostrilitis is badgering her. Folks, if there was any question that she was covert, then the independent counsel, Fitzgerald, would have pursued on that basis, rather than go after a process crime with somebody who might have lied before the grand jury, as is the case.
If there had been anybody who had genuinely, knowingly outed Valerie Plame as a covert agent, then Fitzgerald would have had his case. Here’s the point about this. On the covert agent ID act, the government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew that what he said actually ID’d the person as a covert agent, and Fitzgerald couldn’t find anybody who fell under that law. Furthermore, they would have had to prove that that person knew that the CIA was taking affirmative measures to protect the agent’s ID. There’s no evidence, no indication, and there was no testimony that Scooter Libby actually knew any of those things. All of this goes to the preliminary issue. The justice department had to have known even before Fitzgerald was appointed, that the facts gathered by the preliminary investigation could not amount to a violation of either the Espionage Act and the Covert Agent ID Protection Act. The investigation should have been ended at that preliminary stage for those reasons with no independent counsel appointed.
The justice department knew it. Mr. Comey, the Director of Central Intelligence, Mr. Tenet, they all knew it. Nobody broke that law. If somebody did, like Nostrilitis Waxman is attempting to insinuate here, then Fitzgerald would have had a case. But these were interesting fireworks out there. “How can you say she wasn’t covert? Well, General Hayden told me that she was.”
Toensing said, “Has he testified to that?”
“Are you saying that General Hayden…”
“I’m just saying, ‘All I know is, congressman, under the testimony I’ve heard, nobody said they ever knew — and nobody was ever charged with knowing that she was covert,’ and therefore she wasn’t covered by the statute.”
So we get to the crux of this, and the crux of this is that these hearings that Waxman is conducting today are nothing more than a propaganda ordeal in order to try make sure to cement in the minds of as many people as possible and the Drive-Bys are going to help this. I want to warn if you’re going to waste your time watching Drive-By Media tonight, it’s going to be nothing but, “She was covert! She was covert! She was covert.” It is what it is, but this is nothing more than a propaganda exercise by Waxman and the Democrats on this committee to keep the blame shifted at the White House and the highest levels. Now we spent the first hour of the program poking holes through much of the testimony of Valerie Plame, and I don’t want to repeat it because it will be reviewed and relayed on our website at RushLimbaugh.com later this afternoon when we get the site updated.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Toensing is still testifying, and the Democrats are just skewering her over her assertion that Valerie Plame could not have been covert.
“How do you know? How do you know? How can you possibly know that?”
“Well, I wrote the law.”
It’s very easy to understand this. It’s simple to know this. If she were covert and she were outed, all these people that knew this would have known it supposedly, then Fitzgerald would have had a field day. He would have had a field day. He could have rung up 20 people on charges here. Interesting, I don’t know if it’s happened yet, but as of this morning when this program started and I had to host this program and dispense with watching, no mention of the name of Richard Armitage as the original leaker.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s the audio sound bite I was referring to: Henry Waxman very, very irritated that Victoria Toensing would dare challenge the assertion of the day, the order of the day that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert agent.
WAXMAN: I am stunned, Ms. Toensing, that you would come here with absolute conclusions that she was not a covert agent; the White House did not leak it; no one seemed to know in advance that she was a CIA agent. Do you know those facts for your own firsthand knowledge?
TOENSING: Well, lets just take those one by one. As I said, I was there. I was the chief drafter for chairman —
WAXMAN: I’m not asking for your credentials. I’m asking how you reached those conclusions. Do you —
TOENSING: That’s part of my credentials is because I know what the intent of the act was.
WAXMAN: I’m not asking what the intent of the act was.
TOENSING: Well that’s the question.
WAXMAN: Do you know that she was not a covert agent?
TOENSING: She is not a covert agent under the act.
WAXMAN: Okay, so —
TOENSING: You can call anybody anything you want to in the halls of the CIA.
WAXMAN: General Hayden! General Hayden, head of the CIA, told me personally that she was. If I said that she was a covert agent, it wouldn’t be an incorrect statement?
TOENSING: Does he want to swear that she was a covert agent under the act?
WAXMAN: I’m trying to say as carefully as I can. He reviewed my statement, and my statement was that she was a covert agent.
TOENSING: Well, he didn’t say it was under the act.
WAXMAN: Okay, so you’re trying to define it exactly under the act.
TOENSING: That’s important.
WAXMAN: No, no, no, no, no, no. I’m not giving you — I’m not yielding my time to you.
RUSH: Look, you may be a witness, but you’re not talking! (Laughing.) You’ve gotta love Victoria Toensing.
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