Tonight, the LA Times gets in on the Plame Game by quoting former Libby aides on Libby's obssession with getting back at Joe Wilson.
Here's the story. Emphasis in blockquotes all added by me (free subscription req'd).
Libby's anger over Wilson's 2003 charges has been known. But new interviews and documents obtained by The Times provide a more detailed view of the depth and duration of Libby's interest in Wilson. They also show that the vice president's office closely monitored news coverage. On one occasion, the office prohibited a reporter from traveling with Cheney aboard Air Force Two, because the vice president's daughter said Cheney was unhappy with that newspaper's coverage.
Those efforts by the chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, began shortly after Wilson went public with his criticisms in 2003. But they continued into last year -- well after the Justice Department began an investigation in September 2003, into whether administration officials had illegally disclosed the CIA agent's identity, say former White House aides. (emphasis added)
There's more...
Looks like someone's out to pin all the blame on Libby and limit the damage.
"Scooter had a plan to counter Wilson and a passionate desire to do so," said a second person, a former White House official familiar with the internal deliberations. Like other former White House staff, this person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
I mean, like, it was really, really, really all this one guy Scooter driving the bus here. And only him. We swear. You want a concrete detail? OK:
The documents and interviews show that, when it came to monitoring press coverage of Wilson and other issues affecting the vice president's reputation, Libby was meticulous. Staffers were instructed to use Nexis and Google to watch even the most obscure publications.
See, everyone else was being cool, but Psycho Scooter wouldn't let it go!
While other administration officials were maintaining a careful distance from Wilson in 2004, Libby ordered up a compendium of information that could be used to rebut Wilson's claims that the administration had "twisted" intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq before the U.S. invasion.
I guess everyone hates the NYT:
During a time of tension between the New York Times and the campaign over coverage, aides recommended that a reporter from the paper be allowed to fly aboard Cheney's plane with others in the press corps. Liz Cheney had a different idea.
Writing from her Blackberry mobile e-mail device, she noted that her father was upset with a story that appeared in that morning's newspaper, saying: "vp has totally had it with nytimes. This is really not the right time to ask him to charm a reporter from that paper." The reporter was excluded from the vice president's plane.
Wilson nails it in his reaction to this story:
Wilson, reached by telephone while on a speaking tour in California, said Thursday that he was outraged by the extent of the White House effort to track and counter his statements.
"What an abuse of power," Wilson said. "What the hell are they doing using taxpayer funded employees to root around and find information on me?"
So, who is it sourcing this "long knives" piece? Cheney trying to save his own ass?