Marble Composition

Toensing: Nutjob at the Wheel

Most younger folks won't remember the Saturday Night Live skit featuring Toonces the Driving Cat, but believe me, it was priceless. In my head I keep trying to rhetorically shoe horn Republican legal hatchet woman Victoria Tonesing's commentary into some analogy about her driving off a legal cliff, but it doesn't quite fit. Anyway, there's some people in the commentariat that really get under my skin. And Vicky, while not very well known, has taken to the cable airwaves to spout her vile scrapings. Last night's victim, aside from the viewers, was Chris Matthews of Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.

As we‘ve discussed, Judy Miller testified again in front of the grand jury and we‘re expecting Karl Rove to return soon.

So what‘s it like to be inside a grand jury investigation?

We turn to two people who have been there. Former Justice Department official Victoria Toensing, and Sol Wisenberg, who was a deputy independent counsel under Ken Starr—famous name.

Victoria, let me ask you, just if you can look through a glass darkly and try to tell us what do you think is going on with this effort by the special prosecutor bringing back Karl Rove or letting him come back for more testimony, going after Judy Miller again for more testimony before the grand jury?

What is he working toward as you watch him?

VICTORIA TOENSING, FMR. DEP. ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Chris, at one point maybe about a month ago I would have said he‘s a lawyer who is dotting every I, crossing every T, he‘s just being thorough and he‘s telling the press, you wanted an investigation, I‘ll show you an investigation so that no one can say that I skipped any little beat in this thing.

But I think recently, I have seen evidence that he has lost it. He has gone over the edge.

This is one of the first signs that the GOP political machine is out to discredit the prosecutor in the Plame leak case. I saw this coming, but many on the Right have held back. Her implication is that Patrick Fitzgerald is either on a wild goose chase, or he's lost his mind.

TOENSING: Look, go back in time and just think about this a little bit.

When Bob Novak wrote his column it could just have easily been framed as he, Bob Novak was exposing nepotism. But it didn‘t happen that way because the press didn‘t like President Bush and framed it all for poor Joe Wilson. If a wife gets a husband an assignment and he doesn‘t have any experience in WMD and he doesn‘t have any kind of senior experience in the country, Novak thought he was exposing nepotism.

This is where the writer, yours truly, loses his mind because this woman is not only very misleading, she's full of horseshit. Let's see, his experience might encompass not just Niger, but the entire African continent. Here's a brief review of his public service, all very honorable:

Wilson served as U.S. ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe under President George H. W. Bush and helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. He was hailed as "truly inspiring" and "courageous" by George H. W. Bush after sheltering more than one hundred Americans at the US embassy in Baghdad, and mocking Saddam Hussein's threats to execute anyone who refused to hand over foreigners. As a result, in 1990, he also became the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein (Wilson, 2003).

Here she says that if there was nepotism, it's all fine and dandy to go breaking the law and ruining our intelligence operations:

TOENSING: So when somebody says his wife picked him, that would be fair game to get out. Nobody—Novak never ...

And what do we have here, Toonces?

TOENSING: Chris, you know what was happening with reporters at that time. And you weren‘t one of them because I‘m not—that‘s not what you do, but the written press was going around saying, why Wilson? Why Wilson? And they were calling all over. There were probably a dozen reporters around here saying, why would they pick that idiot because he wasn‘t well thought of, and we all know that, and if it wasn‘t for ...

An idiot. She wasn't done, she said it again:

TOENSING: But can‘t you see the vice president—being in the vice president‘s office, and call over to the CIA why did you pick this idiot, as they learned that he was?

MATTHEWS: Right.

This is where I get a little hot under the collar. Channeling Dick Cheney, she blithely calls a former ambassador of the U.S., literally the last man out of Bahgdad before the first Gulf War, an idiot. Adding insult to injury, Tweety Bird plays along by sputtering in the affirmative. He's not done either. It doesn't show up well in the transcripts, but Tweety admits to getting lead around by the nose, apparently under Toonces' spell:

MATTHEWS: It‘s fun to fight with you because you sometimes beat me like just—anyway, thank you.

No, how about Fuck You Chris, you mental midget. Toensing's present claim to fame on the talking head shows is that she helped write the Intelligence Identities Act. That's all well and good, except she thinks it only applies to Republican detractors. Whenever people she and her husband throw money at come into the crosshairs, it's plainly obvious the law doesn't apply.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Vicky is lower than snail shit. Maybe that comes with the territory when you're a two-bit legal shill that has Reagan Justice Department credentials on your resume, but when we all get to see it, there's no way to get away from the stench.

posted by FuzzFinger @ 10/13/2005 10:18:00 PM