Stunning Hubris by Rove
According to the Washington Post, "when first questioned in the days after Plame's name appeared in the press, Rove left the impression with top White House aides that he had talked about her only with Novak."
This is why Rove is really in trouble. If his colleagues have testified that he told them Novak was the only person he talked to, then that's intent to deceive right from the start. He knew had done something wrong, misled his own colleagues, and thought he could get away with it. He is therefore directly responsible for putting the President and spokesman in this position:
McClellan at a September 29, 2003, press briefing:
McCLELLAN: The president has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the leaking of Plame's identity], they would no longer be in this administration.
[...]
Q: You continue to talk about the severity of this and if anyone has any information they should go forward to the Justice Department. But can you tell us, since it's so severe, would someone or a group of persons, lose their job in the White House?McCLELLAN: At a minimum.
Bush, June 10, 2004: QUESTION: Given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, suggesting that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leak the agent's name? And do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?
BUSH: Yes. And that's up to the U.S. attorney to find the facts.
posted by The Duke @ 10:39 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Your first mistake is getting your info from the Washington Post which is liberally biased so the slant you get is decidely leftist.
Rove didn't do anything wrong with the possible exception of speaking to a member of the press that is hostile to anything Republican.
Valerie Plame had been outed by the CIA themselves 7 years before Novak revealed her name to the public. She was not undercover for over 5 years when Rove alluded to Joe Wilson's wife. Thus, this is a non-issue except with the Bush hating Liberals, who really are only talking about this because they are still mad at Rove for telling the truth about them a few weeks before.
With regard to "outing" Ms. Wilson, I wish that you were correct, Mark. Unfortunately, that's simply not the way official and non-official cover work, even when posted in the U.S.
With regard to the Post, the article indicates that White House officials (not Rove) have said he told THEM he had spoken only with Novak. So it's not the Post you have a beef with, but with either Rove or these White House officials, and the problem is that what he told them has been contradicted by other grand jury witnesses. That in itself may be "just" perjury, but changing stories are a red flag to any prosecutor, and it means that this issue isn't going away anytime soon.
I have my own beefs with the Post, but that's a matter for another day.
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