Posted on 09/15/2006 4:34:00 AM PDT by NotchJohnson
Karl Rove Gets No Apology From Me September 14, 2006
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So where’s my apology to Karl Rove?
That’s what many readers want to know: Having accused Karl Rove of leading a conspiracy within the Bush White House to reveal the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, don’t I owe Rove an apology now that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has admitted that he, not Rove, was Novak’s primary source?
Well, here’s my answer: Hell, no! Armitage’s involvement doesn’t disprove the Rove conspiracy. It only proves it was a lot wider than we originally thought.
We remember the facts of the case. Plame’s identity was first blown in a column by Bob Novak on July 14, 2003 — eight days after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, had posted an op-ed piece in the New York Times challenging President Bush’s State of the Union assertion that Saddam Hussein had been shopping for yellowcake uranium in Niger. He’d been sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate those claims, wrote Wilson, and came back and told the White House the story was phony. In other words, Bush was lying. In response, Novak implied — citing two administration sources — that an out-of-work Wilson had been sent to Africa only because his wife worked at the CIA, and was therefore not to be believed.
Concerned that the secret identity of one of its officers had been compromised, putting lives at risk, the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate. Acknowledging his own conflict of interest, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft named Patrick Fitzgerald as independent counsel to find out who leaked Plame’s identity — not only to Novak, but to reporters Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, and Matt Cooper.
Enter Karl Rove.
As we soon learned, there wasn’t just one person at the White House going after Valerie Plame, there was a whole team. We knew Dick Cheney himself kicked it off with notes to Scooter Libby, scribbled on a copy of Wilson’s op-ed, to find out who Wilson was and how he got involved in the issue. We knew Scooter Libby, since indicted for lying to Fitzgerald’s grand jury, told Judy Miller about Plame. We knew Karl Rove talked to Matt Cooper and Bob Novak. The only thing we didn’t know was: Who was Novak’s primary source? And who talked to Bob Woodward?
Now we do. In their new book, “Hubris,” Michael Isikoff and David Corn reveal that Novak and Woodward both learned of Valerie Plame from the same man, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. At least in Novak’s case, Armitage told CBS News, he let Plame’s identity slip “inadvertently.” He insists he was later mortified to see her name in print and realize he might have been Novak’s source. Inadvertently, of course.
Hogwash. Novak is too good a reporter to let that stand. In a blistering column, written after Armitage’s less-than-sincere mea culpa on CBS, Novak writes that Plame’s ID didn’t just slip out of Armitage’s lips in idle chit-chat. Armitage not only identified Plame as a CIA agent, he told Novak what department she worked for. He blamed Plame for volunteering her husband for the fact-finding mission to Niger. And he suggested this was excellent fodder for a future Novak column.
Now, add it all up. Dick Cheney sics his staff on Wilson and Plame. And within a few days: Scooter Libby talks to Judy Miller, Karl Rove talks to Bob Novak and Matt Cooper, Dick Armitage talks to Bob Novak and Bob Woodward. And you expect me to believe that’s all just one big coincidence? They all just happened to come upon the same evidence at the same time and decided to leak it to the media?
Sorry. My gullibility can’t stretch that far. There were too many people involved — all out to get Valerie Plame because her husband dared undermine one of the president’s key, but phony, arguments for going to war in Iraq. No doubt about it. There was a deliberate, widespread conspiracy within the Bush Administration — all the way from the White House to the State Department — to retaliate against Joe Wilson by destroying his wife’s career at the CIA. And there’s only one person in the White House devious and powerful enough to organize such a campaign.
That’s why Karl Rove will never get an apology from me.
His doctor needs to increase the meds.
If Bill ever apologizes for anything, I won't be around to hear it. Can't stand him!
hilarious
Press is also conveniently omitting that everything Wilson has said has been proven to be a lie.
A lot of rats need to apologize to Rove....what's that I hear?...nothing!
To paraphrase T. Boone Pickens, "The higher a monkey climbs, the more he shows his ass."
He like many others in the MSM went so far out on that limb that they can't go back.
Being a lib means never having to say you're sorry.
No wonder he didn't make it at the seminary. He makes me sick.
You have stretched it for years Bill, you just don't have the guts to admit it.
Press on, Bill.
Nobody is listening.
I think the Pope and the Cuban mob are in on it too.
What a buffoon.
Ho hum....why am I not surprised? Who wants to bet that this is the article that Chrissy Matthews will talk about (since it allows him to continue his wacko conspiracy theory)? what a total bunch of loons these lefties are!! Ugh!
all of the radical left are in denial. They bet everything that this would take down the President. They have lost and are now trying to find every possible excuse to save face.
What this really goes to show is that they have no conscience, no intellectual and moral honesty.
Howard Dean, MAHABLOG, DU and the rest of them are LIARS!
I bet Bill Press believes that the White House was involved in the 9/11 attacks. What a moron!
Not much of a man, is he?
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