Parsometer on:
Cooper employs the time-tested and trusty "can't recall" ploy. From the article:
Rove has testified thathe and Cooper talked about welfare reform foremost and turned to the topic of Plame only near the end, lawyers involved in the case said. But Cooper, writing about his testimony in the most recent issue of Time, said he "can't find any record of talking about" welfare reform. "I don't recall doing so," Cooper wrote.
As to Rove being his "first" source---I found the reporters played fast and loose with terminology, first writing:
Lawyers involved in the case said there are now indications that Fitzgerald did not initially know or suspect that Rove was Cooper's primary source for the reporter's information about Plame.
This does not exactly say Rove was the "first" and the evidence to date does not buttress a Rove-as-primary-source scenario.
But then the sleight of hand on page two:
Cooper then told the grand jury that Rove was the first administration official to tip him off that Plame worked for the CIA.
First administration official does not mean first source.