Posted on 07/14/2005 1:37:52 AM PDT by kcvl
A gleeful mob of Democrats and their news-media allies is demanding that President Bush immediately fire Karl Rove, his trusted adviser.
What's next? Torches and pitch forks?
Let's be clear: Clamoring for the president to abandon Rove, for the ostensible crime of publicly disclosing a CIA operative's identity, conveniently distracts from the real story here and it's a tale that shows the Bush-bashers at their most disingenuous.
First, a recap.
In 2003, career diplomat and former Clinton national-security official Joseph Wilson, a CIA consultant, wrote a scathing commentary for The New York Times, charging that he had been sent to Africa at Vice President Dick Cheney's request before the war in Iraq to check out allegations from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium in Niger.
Wilson said he quickly concluded that the reports were unfounded and that he so informed his superiors. Nevertheless, he continued, Bush included the allegation in his 2003 State of the Union Address and used it to justify making war on Iraq knowing full well it was false.
Days later, columnist Robert Novak reported that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative and likely played a role in selecting him for the Africa mission a charge Wilson swiftly denied, but which later was unequivocally substantiated in a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report.
The disclosure of Plame's name led to accusations that someone at the White House in an effort to discredit Wilson had maliciously disclosed his wife's CIA status, which might endanger her while violating the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
Democrats demanded, and got, a special prosecutor to investigate.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
........... on thin ice?
We can only hope, I guess.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.