April 7, 2006: Democrat Asks Sunday Talk Show Hosts to Press for Truth behind Plame Wilson Leak

Democratic Representative John Conyers (D-MI) publishes an appeal to the Sunday morning political talk show hosts, including the hosts of “Meet the Press”, “Face the Nation”, “This Week”, and “Fox News Sunday”, to ask for answers to the questions surrounding the Valerie Plame Wilson identity leak and the “distortions and cherry picking of information” that provided much of the Bush administration’s justification for the invasion of Iraq. Conyers writes that he is doing what he can to compel truth and honesty from the White House: “I have a choice. I can either stand by and lead my constituents to believe I do not care that the president apparently no longer believes he is bound by any law or code of decency. Or I can act.” Conyers, along with several Democratic colleagues, has written a letter to President Bush asking for the truth behind the Iraq intelligence manipulation and the Plame Wilson leak (see July 14, 2003), even though, as Conyers writes, “[w]e know he is unlikely to write us back.” Conyers implores the hosts of the Sunday talk shows—NBC’s Tim Russert, CBS’s Bob Schieffer, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “and even” Fox News’s Chris Wallace—for their assistance. “[Y]ou have the power to get some answers this weekend,” he writes. “Will you? Will you find out why the president thinks leaks that hurt his case for war or reveal a massive domestic spying operation are treasonous, but leaks that appear to support his policy positions are appropriate?… Will you find out what other leaks were officially sanctioned? Did the president or vice president authorize the leaking of information that [former] ambassador [Joseph] Wilson’s wife was an undercover CIA operative?” [Huffington Post, 4/7/2006]