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Would You Like the Chicken or the Fish?

Will Bunch has a great post up, which -- in light of the fact that Fitzgerald now seems to have Cheney in his sites -- sheds a bit of light on why the Special Counsel might have reason to suspect the VP was involved in smearing Joe Wilson. He takes us back to a June July 16, 2003 dinner honoring Gerald Ford attended by Andrea Mitchell. Her husband, Alan Greenspan, was also a guest of honor, meaning Mrs. Greenspan likely sat next to Darth Cheney.

Why is this interesting? Because via the Chicago Tribune, March 5, 2004 we learn that Fitzgerald has subpoenaed not only the guest list, but at least one of the guests from this particular dinner (via TalkLeft):

The subpoena added journalists such as Mike Allen and Dana Priest of The Washington Post, Michael Duffy of Time magazine, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball" and reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.

(snip)

Finally, the subpoena requested a list of those in attendance at the White House reception on July 16 for former President Ford's 90th birthday. The White House on Thursday declined to release the list, and the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, which paid for the event, did not return phone calls.

Rather than spend my time ranting about Andrea Mitchell and her shameless insistence on covering this story like she wasn't up to her eyeballs in it, I'll bow to a superior pen and let Digby rant about Mitchell shooting the shit on Hardball with Tweety:

This story is the weirdest kabuki dance I've ever seen. I thought it was absurd when the news anchors held the exit poll results but winked and nodded all day about the outcome. (That's become so bizarre after the last two elections, however, that their winks and nods will be meaningless in any close election.) But this is ridiculous. We have big time reporters in the Washington press corps who know a lot more about what is going on than they are saying. A number of them have been interviewed by the Justice department or testified. They are part of the story. And yet they pretend that they are "objective" reporters who have no personal knowledge of events and don't even feel the need to issue a disclaimer saying that they had been interviewed or they testified and can't talk about it.

If Andrea Mitchell wants to call herself a journalist, the next time she opens her mouth let's fucking hear about this.

posted by Jane Hamsher @ 10/17/2005 12:58:00 PM