Scrapbook
Scrapbook Exclusive Scrapbook Leak Investigation In trying to get to the bottom of the who-leaked-the-CIA-wife's-name-to-Robert Novak affair, Newsweek offered a conceptual breakthrough last week....
...According to the Associated Press, Fowler's departure was prompted by his concern "that supporters who used the Internet to draft Clark into the race are not being taken seriously by [other] top campaign officials...
...That would make the White House officials not leakers or felons, but ham-fisted spinners...
...None of the six reporters has yet come forward to confirm the Post's account on the record, although one reporter who asked to remain anonymous did claim to the Post that an "official" had called with the information about Wilson's wife...
...But maybe, suggested Newsweek's ace reporters Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, the "senior administration official" who blabbed to the Post was mistaken...
...Perhaps...
...In short, the Clark campaign is veering into Reformparty land, where intra-factional squabbling between the "volunteers" and the "big-dollar consultants" becomes the dominant theme, until . . . well, pretty soon, it'll be time for Wesley Clark to start singing Patsy Cline songs, won't it...
...You might say he's a "pro" all over...
...But with everything that can happen in California these days, The Scrapbook refuses to give even Gary Coleman short shrift...
...And if the popularity of actors running for public office holds steady, Coleman could easily return to politics, say, in three years—to run against Senator Dianne Feinstein (whom he contemplated challenging in her last race for reelection...
...for thinkin' that my love could hold you...
...Here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD—as much damage as it may do to our reputations as insiders to admit this—no one got any calls about Joe Wilson and his wife either before or after the Novak column...
...Clark, very much unlike Ross Perot, doesn't have any of his own—big dollars, that is...
...Mark Fabiani, Clark's spokesman, says the general's speechmaking practices "were appropriate...
...The "H...
...Some "senior administration official," of course told Novak, though perhaps inadvertently as he has claimed...
...Consider: On October 7, veteran Democratic operative Donnie Fowler abruptly quit after three weeks as Clark's campaign manager...
...Offensive...
...Coleman's impressive showing at last week's polls has taken him to new heights...
...Wilson's name was already in print...
...The story, remember, took off in late September when a "senior administration official" told the Washington Post that before Novak's column appeared last July, two White House officials had "called at least six Washington journalists" to maliciously out the wife of administration critic Joe Wilson—an undercover CIA operative until she was named in Novak's column...
...Ross" Clark Campaign General Wesley Clark, the only Democratic candidate for president who—last time THE SCRAPBOOK looked—isn't actually a Democrat, party-registration-wise, is nevertheless many wonderful Democratish things...
...He is anti-union and for cutting taxes...
...Coleman has called himself a conservative...
...Ridiculous...
...But it's easily disproved...
...That was then...
...There are, after all, "senior administration officials" who work at the CIA...
...At their debate last week in Phoenix, Clark was "slammed" (USA Today), "jabbed" (Chicago Tribune), "singled out" (the New York Times), "ganged up" on (San Diego Union-Tribune), and generally subjected to abuse of the sort his new party usually reserves for Republicans and similar such pariahs...
...Either that, or Newsweek is right and the six reporters don't really exist—i.e., there was no organized calling until after Mrs...
...And you might say he's a Perot all over, too...
...Which is no doubt why Fabiani also says Clark will never do it again and will return the honoraria...
...Maybe those calls were made after Novak's column appeared...
...The other Democratic candidates are belatedly beginning to defend themselves against this upstart pretender...
...And we wonder if perhaps this is why there has been so little progress in identifying the six or more reporters...
...The six journalists could come forward, if they exist...
...Presidential Hopefuls Take Aim At Drug Companies, Gen...
...And, sure enough, those other top campaign officials—none of them any more veteran or operative-like than Fowler, truth be told—are now the subject of much anguished blogger caterwauling among the general's reg'lar old we-the-people cyber-enthusiasts...
...Speaking of big dollars, The Scrap-book feels obliged to acknowledge that Gen...
...Our (inadvertent) source for this theory is blogger Josh Marshall, who posted this summary of a Sept...
...Wilson says he called Novak back and asked why the article said 'two senior administration officials,' whereas during their phone call he had sourced it to someone at the CIA...
...Journalistic vanity may be preventing the Washington press corps from admitting that their numbers never made it into any administration official's speed-dial list...
...I'm crazy...
...Karl Rove, for instance, seems to have had his only reported conversation on the subject of Mrs...
...And Wilson himself admitted to Newsweek that he hadn't heard from any reporters asking about his wife until Novak called...
...Novak, who makes a religious dogma out of protecting his sources, would no doubt be completely sincere in saying that he had misspoken if in fact he had accidentally revealed too much to Wilson about his source...
...He seems to want them really really badly, though...
...According to Wilson, Novak said, 'I misspoke the first time.'" Misspoke is an artful verb...
...He is, for example, as he has now explained in one of his many recent, typically detailed policy pronouncements, "pro-health care...
...Clark is also "pro-environment...
...As we say, this is just a theory...
...Wilson after the Novak column was out...
...It is also remarkable considering the actor's tumultuous past: Though he once earned $70,000 per episode of his hit series, Coleman was forced to file bankruptcy after his parents squandered his fortune...
...otherwise, the Federal Election Commission probably wouldn't have had to open an investigation of Clark, as was revealed last Wednesday, for possible campaign finance law violations...
...No Small Wonder With all the buzz surrounding Arnold Schwarzenegger's triumph at the polls, it's easy to forget the also-rans who, in many cases, came up with rather impressive results...
...One of his co-stars was charged with attempted murder, while another starred in a porno (called Different Strokes) and later died of an overdose...
...The identity of the second Novak source is of only academic interest, since he could easily bluff his way into getting someone to confirm what he already knew...
...For instance, we were pleased to see that Gary Coleman, the diminutive ex-child actor from Diff'rent Strokes and sometime security guard, garnered 12,683 votes—good enough for eighth place and more than the combined total for comedian Gallagher and entertainer Angelyne...
...Improbable...
...Here's our theory (which is consistent with Newsweek's hypothesis): Maybe it was someone at the CIA...
...Seems that Clark, even after he formally declared himself a presidential candidate, was still making personally lucrative appearances on the college rubber-chicken speaker's circuit—appearances at which he was less than careful to stay mum about his political ambitions...
...And, in more than one respect, illegal contributions at that...
...Unfortunately, under certain pesky statutory provisions and FEC regulations, the honoraria paid to Clark for his talks must therefore be considered campaign contributions...
...Coleman admitted to Geraldo Rivera that he twice tried to commit suicide...
...29 interview he did with Wilson: "When Novak first contacted [Wilson] in July, he told him that he had a CIA source that told him that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a 'CIA operative.' . . . When Novak's article appeared, it sourced the story to 'two senior administration officials...
...Clark," ran our favorite headline, in the New York Sun...
Vol. 9 • October 2003 • No. 6
