Bush backs Rove amid CIA leak "scandal"

Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 | By Joseph Curl and Bill Gertz

[JohnHuang2]

President Bush continues to have confidence in Karl Rove, the presidential adviser at the center of a press frenzy over the ongoing Justice Department investigation into a leak that divulged the name of a CIA officer, the White House said yesterday. "Any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president. They wouldn't be working here at the White House if they didn't have the president's confidence," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said. Asked whether that included Mr. Rove, the spokesman said, "Yes." But for the second straight day, the White House refused to answer questions about the case, which is consuming Washington and has become the prime topic of the White House press secretary's daily briefings. Mr. McClellan deflected questions yesterday, saying the matter is part of an "ongoing investigation." Mr. Bush ignored a question about Mr. Rove during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I'm optimistic that by the end of the day, and this scandal is finally done and buried, Laurence O'Donnell and other assorted whacked Democrats find themselves gazing at striped sunlight.

This "scandal" is a non-starter.

[balch3]

That vile John Stewart spent almost his whole "comedy" (really propoganda) show slandering Karl Rove last night.

What bothers me is that even though there was no crime here, Rove's reputation is being destroyed. WE know that he's a decent and honorable man, but most people have never heard of him before now. This is their first impression, and it's a negative one. Sickening.

Meanwhile, one of President Bush's most trusted advisors is having to spend his time dealing with this instead of helping the President on the vital issues that need addressing. Is it too much to say that all this is helping the terrorists?

[Lancey Howard]

I clicked the link and was disappointed to find that the Washington Times didn't have the guts to do what you did - - put quote marks around the word "scandal". Fortunately, this whole fabricated "scandal" is not something that the mindless chattering class can easily get its hands around, and everybody who has a clue understands that there's nothing to this whole fiasco, at least as far as Rove is concerned.

I do hope, however, that the special prosecutor starts indicting a few of the scumbag reporters for perjury, obstruction, etc. That will be funny. Meantime, I laugh every time I think about that chump Judith Miller rotting in jail just to protect the New York Times from embarrassment.

[Rokurota]

Meanwhile, one of President Bush's most trusted advisors is having to spend his time dealing with this instead of helping the President on the vital issues that need addressing

And there is the motive.

[Fresh Wind]

Is it Watergate yet? Wake me up when we get there.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Tom DeLay's "scandal" took the Democrats nowhere, they have to invent a scandal, and Laurence O'Donnell has had the long knives out on Rove for a long time.

[Eva]

Don't worry about it, most of the population never even heard of Karl Rove. The 'Rats are wasting their time and effort.

[cynicom]

At the very least Rove is guilty of talking with the enemy. Course Bush family has Clinton for a friend. Birds of a feather.

[Jeff Chandler]

This scandal will soon be overshadowed by the Enron scandal which will be overshadowed by the Halliburton scandal which will be overshadowed by the Abu Grabe (sp?) scandal which will be overshadowed by the Gitmo scandal which will be overshadowed by the Bush AWOL scandal which will be overshadowed by the DUI scandal, u.s.w..

Other than the left wing high school history textbooks, nobody will care.

[Jeff Chandler]

Oh, yeah! I remember the Delay scandal. LOL!

[JohnHuang2]

heh ;-) Well said.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Yeah, that scandal revealed alot about just how crooked both sides are. Unlike DeLay, many Democrats didn't even account for the trips they took (which is a Congressional Law they themselves passed). All of a sudden you don't hear about that anymore. Now this Rove "scandal" comes along on the heels of this DeLay ethics scandal. For all intents and purposes, Jim McDermott should be behind bars serving some serious jail time. What he did was far worse than what either DeLay or Rove are accused of.

[angelr1076]

They can't destroy Rove's reputation. The only people that hate Rove are the true-to-life weak liberals. They try and try and try again, and still, they can't hurt the administration. The liberal media just goes on a wild goose chase to take Bush down and they can't. Plame was not protected under the "outing" law, she wasn't an undercover agent, simply a CIA operative. Also, Rove never once mentioned her name and the Senate select commitee has a memo directly from Valerie Plame, suggesting her husband for the position, which he denied, denied, denied. That there already tarnishes his credibility which goes back to the real meat of the matter--why was he sent to Niger in the first place when he had no credentials to be there?

[Bush gal in LA]

The RATS utter hatred of Rove goes way beyond what anyone can imagine! I believe they have a film out called the brain behind Bush or something like that. They feel if only they can get rid of him ,Bush and company will simply fold up their tents and go home. And then Lurch or Hillary can take over.I don't see the Rats letting go of this ''story'' anytime soon. They will milk it to the hilt. I work part time in a law firm and have asked the attorneys how they feel this will turn out. All of them have told me[and most of these guys are defense attorneys and way liberal] that Rove has done nothing illegal and cannot be prosecuted for anything,but don't expect the RATS to give up on this.

[BigSkyFreeper]

The best thing to come out of all of this is the Democrats remain in the minority for a generation or two.

[kms61]

And turncoat Republicans. Someone said on another thread that he has to worry about getting backstabbed by members of his own party. I can think of a few suspects.

[kms61]

The MSM would love to see Rove prosecuted, but I don't think that's really the goal. I think the main thing is just to smear him and distract the White House.

[kms61]

And I have to say it's working like a charm. A lot of high volume threads about Rove on FR over the past week. I guess it can't be helped, but FReepers are doing their part to keep the story in the front of people's minds.

[Dr.Hilarious]

I had the EXACT same response when I read that post: "Oh yeah, the DeLay scandal, I'd forgotten all about that..."

I'm sure there have been several since the DeLay one went belly-up--funny how the dems were screaming about it one day, and not long after became mysteriously silent, though it was on the level of a national emergency for a couple weeks. Kinda like this one.

It really shows you where our MSM droids' values are; that stupid Aruba case was the top story, then the London bombing got rid of that. But they couldn't let national security or the war hold the headlines, so they started on this. If there is another REAL story in our near future, I can just picture that smarmy love match of Moran and Gregory open their reports with "The White House got a break from the Rove Scandal today when..."