SCANDAL IMPLOSION (Rove/Cooper/Wilson)

NY Post ^ | July 12, 2005 | John Podhoretz

[Howlin]

I WROTE a column on Oct. 10, 2003, about the strange case of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame.

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...I offered my speculation of what an administration official might have said to a journalist to explain just how Wilson — a Clinton administration official — got the assignment in the first place: "Administration official: 'We didn't send him there. Cheney's office asked CIA to get more information. CIA picked Wilson . . . Look, I hear his wife's in the CIA. He's got nothing to do. She wanted to throw him a bone.' "

Hate to say I told you so, but . . .

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There's no mistaking the purpose of this conversation between Cooper and Rove. It wasn't intended to discredit, defame or injure Wilson's wife. It was intended to throw cold water on the import, seriousness and supposedly high level of Wilson's findings.

While some may differ on the fairness of discrediting Joseph Wilson, it sure isn't any kind of crime.

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So if the offense wasn't against Plame, what of the offense against Wilson? There was no offense. As many of Joe Wilson's own hottest defenders would no doubt argue in relation to President Bush, exposing a liar is not only not a crime, it's a public service.

And Wilson lied. Repeatedly.

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What isn't controversial is this: Karl Rove didn't "out" Valerie Plame as a CIA agent to intimidate Joe Wilson. He was dismissing Joe Wilson as a low-level has-been hack to whom nobody should pay attention. He was right then, and if he said it today, he'd still be right.

And if Valerie wants to live a quiet spy life, she should stop having her picture taken by society photographers and stop getting stories written about her on the front page of the Times.

[rvoitier]

Hey, Moran!

I got your red hands right here, buddy!

[kcvl]

Per the NYT’s Kristof, the CIA brought Plame and others back to Washington for safety reasons out of concern that Aldrich Aimes had disclosed their identities to the Russian’s before his arrest in 1994.

[cyncooper]

I read here that the CIA believes that Aldrich Ames "outed" her and that's why they brought her in (removed her from covert work) back around 1995. That's ten years ago.

Where did you read it, and was the source credible?

New York Times:

Secrets of the Scandal

[BlueMondaySkipper]

It always helps to have the FACTS before you accuse othres of hypocrisy. Otherwise you look like a complete and utter fool.

Sometimes a person looks like a complete fool because they are.

[Just mythoughts]

"What isn't controversial is this: Karl Rove didn't "out" Valerie Plame as a CIA agent to intimidate Joe Wilson. He was dismissing Joe Wilson as a low-level has-been hack to whom nobody should pay attention. He was right then, and if he said it today, he'd still be right."


What appears to be, however, peradventure that it was actually somebody from the opposition party, say the a presidential want-a-be, liberal determined to protect Saddam and the French/German/Russian/ oil deals as well as gloss over that disaster of a "oil for rotten food program" run by the UN????

Maybe Rove seen as dissing Wilson and his woman really tick offf Wilson and his handlers about not being taken seriously??????

Oh JFKerry was sure stirring the hot pot big time, seeking to collect every "deep throat" he could get his hands on big time. Note JFKerry is calling for ROve to be fired??? WHY???? Could the trail lead back to his campaign????

[Howlin]

Well, that is true. :-)

[Chicos_Bail_Bonds]

bttt

[Thebaddog]

My hunch is that Cooper never asked Rove for permission. He got his orders from Mandy in order to try and dirty up Rove. If you recall her pictures, she is not a marital match for no-chin Cooper. It surely has to be a business relationship.

[MozarkDawg]

Another point to be made, Cooper is not the ONLY journalist to have been given the information of Plame being a CIA op from "a White House source." Novak, obviously, but both Tim Russert and Andrea Mitchell have stated publicly that they also received the phone call.

This email of Cooper's is not the end of the story ... the GJ investigation will continue.

[okie01]

You won't mind if we ignore you, will you?

Aussie journalists are evidently as subject to being misled by their personal biases as American journalists.

[gridlock]

Bingo, Howlin. That "apparently" speaks volumes. There is no indication that Rove said that she worked at the CIA in the e-mail.

I suspect that her employment was well known in Washington circles. When Rove made the connection to Wilson's wife, Cooper already knew that she worked at CIA.

[Howlin]

Or maybe Judith Miller told him?

[Quilla]

Excellent question in your tagline and I suspect the answer to which would be quite revealing.

[Bernard Marx]

Thanks to both. I posted before I read Kristof's piece in the thread. I'm not sure I consider either Kristof or the Times credible, but what he says does make some sense. The possibility CIA was creating a new 'legend' for Plame remains, but how Rove's "revelation" compromised it escapes me since her CIA affiliation and relationship to Wilson were broadly known.

It's clear that Lawrence O'Donnell fired the first shot in what is clearly an orchestrated full-bore media attack on Rove. Rove is the designated fall guy no matter what the facts of Fitzgerald's investigation reveal. The MSM's intention, as usual, is to muddy the facts of the case beyond clarification in the public mind. I'm sure push-polls to pressure the President to fire Rove are already underway.

All that's necessary to understand how this phony "crisis" came into being is to look at the players and their affiliations. The Grunwald-Cooper relationship is key, but viewing the entire mess reminds me of a den of entwined rattlesnakes.

[federal]

Like I said you have a grudge, that's your problem. But the facts are this.........

This is a phonie pumped up "scandal", there was never any "classified infomation" released much less leaked. This entire scenerio was set up by a democrat hack (Joe Wilson) lying about classified government reports. It was intended to give the democrats a weapon against the Administration before the election.

The MSM and the democrats pulled out all their propaganda tricks and forced a investigation into something that wasn't even close to being even unethical much less a crime. The media have now been caught in their lies so they are spinning even harder to confuse the fact that they were acting as agents for the democrats before the election.

This was never a case of Rove or the President doing anything but trying to defend themselves against the lies of a political hack. They haven't had control of the news cycle in this and they have respected the special prosecutor's request to not comment on the investigation. This is what the media is now exploting to try and confuse the issue even more.

You are obviously willing to sell loyal people down the river over lies and false accusations. That doesn't speak very highly of you of your convictions. Actually The media and the democrats have been spinning lies one after the other for a long time and this one will be shown to be a lie as well. There is no bottom to the depths the MSM will go to embarass this Administration, because this administration has show them to be the hacks they really are.

That's not something IMO to be ashamed of or mad about, Its great they are getting exposed. I'm proud they aren't backing down to a bunch of lies, its ashamed your so blinded by your rage at Karl Rove that you accept the lies being spread to support your cause.

[Bogeygolfer]

I too am unhappy with their handling of this but I have a hard time imagining Rove not being candid. Regardless the previous denials of involvement should have mentioned the prior contacts up front and may have lessened the current b.s. It shouldn't have been hard to predict that the conversations were going to come out and they were clearly calculating their statements. I'm going with an all around poor pr performance which has given the MSM one of their few moments in the sun in quite some time.

[Howlin]

Victoria Toensing thinks, as a visitor here at FR,....... that you are a strange "woman".

You are quite insane, IMO.

I have repeatedly ask you not to post to me, yet you continue to post to me and Freepmail me; I just asked you again, and now you have stalked me to another thread.

I didn't like you under your old nick, and you are just as scary under this one. You are quite sick.