UPDATE: The transcript is already online here.
We're blogging it live.
Oh my, Woodward looks like he's waiting for the firing squad.
Larry is playing the Oct 27 episode where Michael Isikoff say Woodward has a bombshell to reveal, and Woodward says he has NO bombshell. Then he uses the rumor about him having a bombshell, which he says is wrong, as evidence of how out of control this investigation is.
Woodward: "I was telling the truth. I did not have a bombshell FOR THE NEXT DAY'S PAPER."
Now he's saying there was nothing wrong with him coming on the show and giving his opinion of the Fitzgerald investigation - saying it sucked - when he was involved in the investigation. So then why did he now apologize and say it was wrong for him NOT to tell his editor if he's still saying there was nothing wrong with what he did?
Why didn't he tell Downie? I was interested in getting the book done. Really, because before you said it was fear of Fitzgerald and getting subpoenaed and going t jail.
There was a sense before the indictment that what I knew was interesting but what did it mean? It was only after the indictment that he knew he knew something interesting that Fitzgerald would want to know.
BULL SHIT. Woodward knew he was the third person to be told that Valerie Plame was CIA by a senior administration official, and he didn't think that was important until the day the indictment came down? He's gotta be kidding. This has been THE story for months before the indictment came down.
Oh this is interesting. Leonard Downie, the Post's executive editor, they just showed a clip of him on Howie Kurtz's show on Sunday saying that it was wrong of Woodward to go on the news shows and give his opinion. But Woodward just said on Larry King that what he did was that everyone does when they come on the shows, they say things but at the same time there are secrets they can't tell. So Woodward is saying what he did was basically okay, it's what lots of people do. Downie seems to disagree. But since Woodward hasn't learned his lesson, what is Downie going to do now?
Oh Good God, now he's bragging about how he jumped on the story, all his "news juices" were flowing. Give me a fucking break.
And another thing - if Woodward is now saying how unimportant he thought the information he had was, how insignificant it was, how it was just some small aside the senior official threw into the conversation, and therefore it wasn't anything he gave a moment's thought to until Fitzgerald announced the indictments a few months ago, then why did Woodward say he didn't come forward over the past few years because worried about Patrick Fitzgerald subpoeanaing him? Woodward didn't even think the info he heard was important, didn't give it a moment's thought for two years, but at the same time he was so worried that he was going to get subpoenaed and thrown in jail for having information that he didn't think was important and never gave a moment's thought to. Huh? You don't worry about going to jail over something someone says flippantly in a conversation, something you don't even give a moment's thought to. And if you worry about going to jail, that means you worry that the info might be something the prosecutor wants and thinks he needs for the investigation. But even so, you still don't tell your editor because YOU don't think the info is important.
Woodward NOW SAYS that when he called Fitzgerald a "junkyard dog prosecutor" on a previous Larry King show, he now regrets having said it ONLY BECAUSE people took that quote out of context. Woodward says he often uses that quote as a COMPLIMENT! Jesus Christ.
How fascinating. Woodward says he remembers EXACTLY the words his source used two and a half years ago to describe Valerie Plame, even though he tells us that the source's mention of Plame was so flippant, so off-hand and so casual that he didn't think much of it. It was such an insignificant point, yet he now, two and a half years later, remembers the exact phrasing of the answer.
Funny, we're 40 minutes into the interview and Woodward is no longer saying that he didn't tell his editors because he was afraid of Fitzgerald. That WAS Woodward's number one talking point only two days ago. Now he isn't saying it at all. So has his reason for not telling his Post editor suddenly changed? If so, why? And why did Woodward give this as his reason only days ago? Was he lying then? Is he lying now?
Oh, check out this concluding remark from Woodward:
KING: In our remaining moments, do you think your reputation's been harmed?Someone get this man off of my TV set.
WOODWARD: I mean, that's for other people to judge.
KING: Do you think so?
WOODWARD: You know, I -- I think the biggest mistake you can make in this sort of situation as a reporter is to worry about yourself. And the issue here is what happened, what can I aggressively push to get in the newspaper or a book, and then in the end, you can deal with this.
He's lecturing US about how reporters need to not worry about themselves. Uh, up until tonight, Woodward's number one defense was that he didn't tell his editor because he was worried he'd be subpoenaed and thrown in jail by Patrick Fitzgerald (even though Fitzgerald wasn't even on the case until 7 months later). Now when asked whether this scandal has harmed his reputation he gets all sanctimonious about how reporters have to stop worrying about themselves, when it was supposedly his worry about himself that stopped him from going to his editor?
Washington Post: I hope you realize what you just did to yourselves tonight.
