Posted on 07/11/2005 9:28:55 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
WASHINGTON - For the better part of two years, the word coming out of the Bush White House was that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a female CIA officer's identity and that whoever did would be fired.
But Bush spokesman Scott McClellan wouldn't repeat those claims Monday in the face of Rove's own lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledging the political operative spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Plame's name.
McClellan repeatedly said he couldn't comment because the matter is under investigation. When it was pointed out he had commented previously even though the investigation was ongoing, he responded, "I've really said all I'm going to say on it."
Democrats jumped on the issue, calling for the administration to fire Rove, or at least to yank his security clearance. One Democrat pushed for Republicans to hold a congressional hearing in which Rove would testify.
"The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "I trust they will follow through on this pledge. If these allegations are true, this rises above politics and is about our national security."
The investigation into the 2003 leak had largely faded into the background until last week, when New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail rather than reveal who in the administration talked to her about Plame.
Cooper also had planned to go to jail rather than reveal his source but at the last minute agreed to cooperate with investigators when a source, Rove, gave him permission to do so. Cooper's employer, Time Inc., also turned over Cooper's e-mail and notes.
One of the e-mails was a note from Cooper to his boss in which he said he had spoken to Rove, who described the wife of former U.S. Ambassador and Bush administration critic Joe Wilson as someone who "apparently works" at the CIA, Newsweek magazine reported.
Within days of the July 11, 2003, e-mail, Cooper's byline was on a Time article identifying Wilson's wife by name — Valerie Plame. Her identity was first disclosed by columnist Robert Novak.
The e-mail did not say Rove had disclosed the name. but it made clear that Rove had discussed the issue.
That ran counter to what McClellan has been saying. For example, in September and October 2003, McClellan's comments about Rove included the following: "The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved," "It was a ridiculous suggestion," and, "It's not true."
Reporters seized on the subject Monday, pressing McClellan to either repeat the denials or explain why he can't now.
"I have said for quite some time that this is an ongoing investigation and we're not going to get into discussing it," McClellan replied.
Asked whether Rove committed a crime, McClellan said, "This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation."
McClellan gave the same answer when asked whether the president has confidence in Rove.
Rove declined to comment Monday and referred questions to his attorney. Last year, he said, "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name."
The Rove disclosure was an embarrassment for a White House that prides itself on not leaking to reporters and has insisted that Rove was not involved in exposing Plame's identity.
The disclosure also left in doubt whether Bush would carry out his promise to fire anyone found to have leaked the CIA operative's identity. Rove is one of the president's closest confidants — the man Bush has described as the architect of his re-election, and currently deputy White House chief of staff.
Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Plame's husband suggested in a New York Times op-ed piece that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq. Wilson has since suggested his wife's name was leaked as retaliation.
The e-mail that Cooper wrote to his bureau chief said Wilson's wife authorized a trip by Wilson to Africa. The purpose was to check out reports that Iraq had tried to obtain yellowcake uranium for use in nuclear weapons. Wilson's subsequent public criticism of the administration was based on his findings during the trip that cast serious doubt on the allegation that Iraq had tried to obtain the material.
Luskin, Rove's lawyer, said his client did not disclose Plame's name. Luskin declined to say how Rove found out that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and refused to say how Rove came across the information that it was Wilson's wife who authorized his trip to Africa.
Rove's lawyer says his client has done nothing wrong.
"In the conversation, Karl is warning Cooper not to get too far out in front of the story," Luskin said. "There were false allegations out there that Vice President Cheney sent Wilson to Niger and that Wilson had reported back to Cheney about his trip to Niger. Neither was true.
"A fair-minded reading of Cooper's e-mail is that Rove was trying to discourage Time magazine from circulating false allegations about Cheney, not trying to encourage them by saying anything about Wilson or his wife."
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said it is "disturbing that this high ranking Bush adviser is not only still working in the White House, but now has a significant role in setting our national security policy."
Dean's counterpart, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, responded: "It's disappointing that once again, so many Democrat leaders are taking their political cues from the far left. ... The bottom line is the Democrats are engaged in blatant partisan political attacks."
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., and a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called on Bush to suspend Rove's security clearances, shutting him out of classified meetings.
Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., asked the Republican chairman of the House Government Reform Committee to hold a hearing where Rove would testify.
Rove should resign or the president should fire him, said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of the liberal advocacy group MoveOn PAC.
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., asked Rove to detail any conversations he had about Plame before her name surfaced publicly in Novak's column.
And in the meantime, the much feared 'deficit' dropped a mysterious $90B overnight and looks to be at $250B by the end of the year (something Bush promised to do by 2008). I can't remember if the NYT put this great news on page 1....hmmm....
i know, its like watching a bad rerun... :(
US unemployment rate dips to 5%, 146,000 jobs added in June
Saturday, July 09, 2005 10:32:14 AM ET
newratings.com
NEW YORK, July 9 (newratings.com) – The US Labor Department Friday reported that the June unemployment rate had dropped to 5%, representing the lowest unemployment rate in four years, from 5.1% in May. Wall Street economists had estimated a 5.1% unemployment rate for the month of June.
"...by the fact that the Bush administration was more concerned about retaliating against a political enemies than making sure our intelligence was correct in Iraq?"
What fact? You have any evidence of this?
The left ROUTINELY bumps up the liberal articles and photos and votes DOWN the "conservative" news. Why visitors are permitted to DUpe the public by "rating" the day's news, I don't know. It does affect what articles are widely seen.
Don't waste your breath on a ZOT.
It is ZOGBYISM. The leftist "McCarthyism". Drag a conservative's name through the mud whether he has done anything or not. Fabricate the evidence and then claim "the story is true even if the evidence is a hoax" with no criticism from other media sources.
Schools had BETTER teach the youngun's about this crap after the libs are exposed to those hold outs who don't see them for the lying socialists they are. I won't stand for their despotism. They loved Uncle Joe Stalin and they are Saddamites to this day.
Mr. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, last week denied that Mr. Rove had contacted Mr. Cooper last Wednesday (which Matt Cooper certainly said standing on the steps of the courthouse), and said that when Mr. Rove spoke to Mr. Cooper two years ago, "Karl didn't disclose Valerie Plame's identification to anyone. That's not a technical statement. That's as practical and direct as I can make it." He also told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Rove had never asked any reporter to treat him as a confidential source in the matter, "so if Matt Cooper is going to jail to protect a source, it's not Karl he's protecting."
Now let's discuss this statement from this article:
"Cooper, according to an internal Time e-mail obtained by Newsweek magazine, spoke with Rove before Novak's column was published. In the conversation, Rove gave Cooper a "big warning" that Wilson's claims might not be entirely accurate and that it wasn't the director of the CIA or the vice president who sent Wilson on his trip. Rove apparently told Cooper that it was "Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD (weapons of mass destruction) issues who authorized the trip," according to a story in Newsweek's July 18 issue.
Where is the proof that Rove said that part of that sentence? For all we know, Cooper added that to the email himself......because everybody in D.C. knew where she worked. FGS, he is married to Mandy Grundwald and she sure as hell knew.
Not interested in it?
Do you make it a habit of reading threads you're not interested in?
Or are you just here to carp?
ahh just carpin' i guess.. tired of the liberals cryin' all the time. Didnt see this big of reaction over Sandy Burgler
And that surprises you?
You're not kidding. It's no mystery that yahoo is for sure a lefty organization, if you will, and they sure as hell don't like Republicans.
I'm watching the McClellan press briefing right now. Man, he is getting slammed. Poor guy, the lefties just don't listen, they cannot get off of the Rove story. They know that he can't comment on an ongoing investigation so why are they bothering?
No matter how much info I try to gather about the CIA scandal, I can't find much supporting it. All the stories are coming from the angry left that's hellbent on seeing Rove go down.
All the stories are coming from the angry left that's hellbent on seeing Rove go down.
------
The left cannot handle Rove, he is too bright and has them calibrated down to the last strategy -- and he makes no bones about knowing it either. THEY ARE SCARED TO DEATH OF HIM like anyone else who has their number, and openly exposes them (ala Rush Limbaugh, et al)....
Would that be the question where David Gregory asked Scott if he thought Rove committed a crime??
It was an outrageous question
Nice try Harry .. but that is not exactly what they said
More like how many articles have been written about this
The libs in the media/press are in a full scale attack on Rove and the WH
..and it's gonna bite 'em back, hard. Dems are hysterical. Wouldn't they be just great in charge of the US Missile Programs? (yuck)
I remember this well...my 5th greade teacher taught us all how to use the NYT as a deadly weapon if needed. The lessons of NY public schools!!! Now all you need is an issue of Newsweek to do it.
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