Capital Gang!

I know its wednesday and I am light blogosphere years behind in commenting on Saturday's Capital Gang. So what. I think what Ms. Carlson subtly did to the Sith Lord is worthy of some electronic real estate that nobody reads anyway. That being said, the beauty of the whole Deep Throat Story is that it would force CNN's Capital Gang to discuss it. Since the Capital Gang has such accolites as Al Hunt, Margaret Carlson and my favorite Mark Shields, any discussion on an anonymous source turned nonymous would certainly ensue.

The Gang typically stroll into the Miller/Cooper Valerie Plame leakgate territory whenever they discuss the anonymous leak issue. The challenge to the gang is that Bob Novak is sitting right accross from them and as such he is able to use the force (ala Darth Vader) to choke the others.

So here is the first exchange:

HUNT: Margaret, is Deep Throat now going to be used as an excuse for retaining anonymous sources?

CARLSON: I hope so! We need some excuse because, as Ben Bradlee said, it's under attack. And at the very moment Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are -- are out in the public again and reviewing this, Matt Cooper and Judy Miller are possibly going off to prison for protecting some thug in White House who gave them bad information and who won't -- who won't admit that he or she did it.
So you know, there's a lot at stake. We all have to be careful that we're not being used, figure out what axe to grind the person might have, but it's -- it's one of the ways that you have to use to get information out.

HUNT: Chuck Colson, you know, the ex-con, was shocked that a public official violating the public trust. I don't think there's anybody here -- maybe John Sears, but nobody here is going to -- going to -- going to be shocked at the use of anonymous sources, are they, Bob?

NOVAK: Well, no. We use anonymous sources all -- you can't -- you can't exist in this town without anonymous sources, particularly on a story like Watergate. But just on a normal little story, a little -- a little story I'm doing on -- on how -- whether the president's doing a good job on congressional relations -- nobody's going to talk to you on the record on that. And these editors, self -- self-important editors and reporters that say, We're going to -- we're going to give it -- put a stop to this -- so I get a -- I give -- I hope that this does stop some of that, but I'm afraid it won't.

OK, Margaret, it wasn't wrong information, it was wrong to disseminate it, like Darth Vader did. So please redeem yourself, the segment is young!

Then this exchange:

CARLSON: And someone in the White House wanted to dish out a story about Joe Wilson's wife, to be mean and undercut the story and whether -- and now won't be called to account for it, while two reporters march off to jail. Now, that's a -- you know, I think there should be some way that if a source lies to you or commits a crime, that then the privilege is diminished.
HUNT: Certainly, if they lie to you, but not if they're wrong. There are some people who...

CARLSON: No, not if they're wrong...

HUNT: ... said if they're wrong...

CARLSON: ... but if...

HUNT: Some people want to be...

CARLSON: But this -- this is...

NOVAK: I do -- I do believe...

CARLSON: This is a lie.

NOVAK: ... one of the (INAUDIBLE) of journalists, since we have my colleague, Margaret, making rather broad declarations, I don't think reporters should make judgments and declarations on things they don't know anything about.
HUNT: John Sears...

CARLSON: Well, we wouldn't have a show!

DAMN! OH SNAP! She just got crazy silly fresh silly gumby gold fresh on that ass!

BIG UP Margeret! If you want to let Marge know how quasi neat it was for her to quasibash Novak on the show you can go here!

However, if Novak claims Margaret knows nothign about her rather broad declarations, why don't you fill us in Bobby?! You DO know something about it don't you?