Jane Harman's new crisis consultant, Lanny Davis, is already hard at work.
This morning he called the Daily Breeze to take issue with this sentence near the bottom of today's Harman story: "The House Intelligence Committee has announced that it will investigate the Harman wiretapping."
Davis argued that that leaves the impression that the committee is investigating whether Harman engaged in a quid pro quo, when in fact the committee is only looking into the circumstances of the wiretap and the leak. He asked for a clarification.
The intelligence committee, however, has been vague about what exactly it is investigating. A spokeswoman told CQ: "In the context of the Harman incident, the committee is looking into the issue, including NSA involvement, as well as any other matter directly related to the committee's jurisdiction over the intelligence community."
The Breeze stands by its characterization.
Additionally, Davis argued that Harman is the victim of a "political kneecap move" by law enforcement officials or intelligence officials. He notes that the initial 2006 leak of the Harman-AIPAC allegations came three days after Harman released a report that was critical of Porter Goss' committee staffers' ties to disgraced Rep. Duke Cunningham.
There have already been several other indications that Goss had a grudge against Harman and that his allies may have had something to do with the leak, so add that one to the list. Also note the silence of Jeff Stein, the CQ reporter who initially broke the story, on the Goss hypothesis. Stein has felt free to comment on many other dimensions of the story, so his silence on the Goss angle is telling.
Also, thanks to commenter foofoo for posting a link to this video of a Harman campaign commercial from 2006. Here's a walk down memory lane:
So will Gene Maddaus get an interview with Lanny "it was just a bj" Davis?
I'm also wondering about who knee-capped who? This sure sounds more like a Nancy Pelosi move than some ex-Bush act.