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Plame, By Any Other Name: Does Rove's current position pass the smell test?
Wash. Post ^ | Monday, July 11, 2005; 1:21 PM | Dan Froooooomkin

Posted on 07/11/2005 12:53:39 PM PDT by rface

There is no longer any question that top presidential adviser Karl Rove is a key player in the Valerie Plame case.

[ snip ]

But let's look at what we can conclude from all this:

· The latest news reports indicate that Rove is the source who Cooper was trying to protect until last week -- and that Rove tipped Cooper about Plame three days before Robert Novak published his now-famous column exposing Plame's identity.

[ snip ]

· Rove and his lawyer's denials that he was involved in telling reporters about Plame now appear to be at best based on Clintonian hairsplitting about whether he literally used her name and identified her as covert or he simply described her as the CIA-employed wife of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, the administration critic that White House was eager to discredit at the time.

· President Bush and press secretary Scott McClellan's denials that Rove was involved in the Plame matter now appear to be at best based on the position that their responses to broad questions about Rove and Plame were met with narrowly constructed responses specifically about whether Rove leaked "classified information." Or is it possible Rove lied to them?

[ snip ]

If Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, longtime friend and deputy chief of staff is actually indicted by Fitzgerald -- which now appears to be a possibility -- it would be an enormous blow to Bush's second term. Until Fitzgerald wraps up his highly secretive investigation, however, that's all just speculation.

So let's ask ourselves some more practical questions instead:

· Does Rove's current position pass the smell test?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cialeak
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To: McGavin999

They know Rove will very likely mastermind the next GOP presidential campaign as well. They've got to find a way to stop/smear him....or at least wear him down so he'll go back to TX at the end of this presidents' term.


21 posted on 07/11/2005 1:06:44 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: rface

Rove is the kind of big fish the Rats have been dreaming about bringing down. You can bet they will fan the flames on this one for the rest of Bush's term. Still too early to say if Rove is indictable -- maybe more indictable than convictable, because of the vagueness of the law involved -- but much as it pains to say it, he really could have a problem, at least a bad PR problem. This may finally be the manufactured "scandal" that has some traction for the Rats. Hope I am wrong. On the other hand, it really is inside-the-beltway stuff that should not resonate much with the public, although the Rats will turn it into a never-ending circus of investigations. I just have an uneasy feeling on this one, unlike the other bogus stuff they have thrown at the administration.


22 posted on 07/11/2005 1:06:46 PM PDT by speedy
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To: johnmecainrino

She identified herself in Who's Who. So much for being covert...


23 posted on 07/11/2005 1:07:11 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Scratch a Liberal. Uncover a Fascist)
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To: snarks_when_bored
The White House should have stepped up and said precisely what Rove's involvement was as soon as this controversy began. Now, after two years or so of slogging, it can't help but appear that Rove was involved in some sort of wrongdoing, even if he in fact did nothing wrong.

I disagree. I don't think the length of time the media beats a dead horse brings it back to life. And I never have, nor do I now, think that anything Rove said compromised Valerie Plame. If there WAS anything real about this, the MSM would have it to talk about. They don't, and never did.

24 posted on 07/11/2005 1:07:32 PM PDT by Judith Anne (Thank you St. Jude for favors granted.)
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To: rface
he simply described her as the CIA-employed wife of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, the administration critic that White House was eager to discredit at the time.

The real question is why is an 'Ambassodor' of the US being a critic of the President. An 'Ambassodor' job is to promote the interest of his country not stab it in the back.

25 posted on 07/11/2005 1:08:13 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
She identified herself in Who's Who. So much for being covert...

She is less covert than Maxwell Smart.

26 posted on 07/11/2005 1:09:39 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: FlingWingFlyer
Anybody got any proof that Plame was a covert, undercover agent?

I saw a picture of her in sunglasses. That's about it. :-)

27 posted on 07/11/2005 1:09:53 PM PDT by colorado tanker (The People Have Spoken)
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To: rface

"Does Rove's current position pass the smell test?"

Rove didn't give a name. That's the "identification" dispute.

And what about Cooper's other sources?


28 posted on 07/11/2005 1:09:56 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: rface

how much damage does it do to Wilson & Plame, now that they're exposed as LIARs and scumbags?


29 posted on 07/11/2005 1:11:11 PM PDT by Steven W.
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To: anniegetyourgun
Yeah, like that's going to work. :o)

I hope they end up carting Wilson off to prison.

30 posted on 07/11/2005 1:11:24 PM PDT by McGavin999
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Next time any question about Rove's involvement in the Plume case comes to Scott McClellan via the MSM, he needs to fire this response back: Rove didn't out Valerie Plume, but yet you keep beating this dead horse while Sandy Berger stole TOP SECRET documents from the National Archives and you guys are totally M.I.A. as reporters!


31 posted on 07/11/2005 1:11:41 PM PDT by princess leah (\)
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To: woofie

In short Cooper and Miller and and Novac already knew it before they asked Rove anything

True, but unknown what Miller is about, and Novak's first source is unlikely Rove. He described the person as "not a partisan gunslinger." That's isn't Rove.


32 posted on 07/11/2005 1:12:00 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: All

Storm in a teacup..the same folks that are so unbelievably outraged at this couldn't even muster a yawn when Sandy Berger stole secret documents and smuggled them out in his pants.


33 posted on 07/11/2005 1:12:04 PM PDT by sofaman
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To: speedy
I would agree except if you were to ask everyday citizens who Karl Rove is, the majority would say: Who?
Honestly, I believe only political junkies know who Rove is. Therefore, I don't think it will harm Bush as much as the libs are foaming at the mouth for it to.
Add this to their list "impeachment!" screams. LOL
34 posted on 07/11/2005 1:12:31 PM PDT by mosquitobite
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To: DB

That's not Rove's problem, if he has one. The problem could be perjury. Hopefully not.


35 posted on 07/11/2005 1:13:12 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: rface

I don't think most people even have the faintest clue who Valery Plame is, or what it is that Rove is supposed to have done. The whole affair is convoluted, and it depends on propaganda that they ran a whole year ago. Her husband is dropped out of the spotlight, his book has gone from the remainder shelf to the pulp mills, and the only way they can revive this "scandal" is by reviving old lies that are now known to be lies.


36 posted on 07/11/2005 1:13:17 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Judith Anne

But would it be in the news now if it had all come out then? I doubt it.


37 posted on 07/11/2005 1:13:37 PM PDT by snarks_when_bored
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To: rface

The author is one ugly Bush-hater.

38 posted on 07/11/2005 1:15:25 PM PDT by stinkerpot65
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To: rface

Dennis knocked out our local AM station that carries Rush. I hear Rove leaked that Dennis was a hurricane on a double secret covert mission.


39 posted on 07/11/2005 1:15:39 PM PDT by auboy ("woof")
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To: snarks_when_bored
The White House should have stepped up and said precisely what Rove's involvement was as soon as this controversy began. Now, after two years or so of slogging, it can't help but appear that Rove was involved in some sort of wrongdoing, even if he in fact did nothing wrong.

I have to agree here. If nothing else, it smacks of Clinton-era parsing of the truth.

Then again, once the investigation is over, we may find out that Rove had a very minor role in the whole thing. Only time will tell.

40 posted on 07/11/2005 1:15:44 PM PDT by Terabitten (Illegal immigration causes Representation without Taxation.)
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