Transcript of todays show should be available within a couple of hours here. Make sure to read it. David Gergen, who sounds more and more like a Bush Administration apologist these days, went into full spin mode on the Karl Rove Plame Leak story. Dobbs cut him off mid-spin. The whole issue of conservatives splitting hairs over the Plame Leak makes me ill.
Lets put the legal issues aside for a moment here... It is not about whether ROVE knew Valerie Plame was an undercover operative, or whether he mentioned her name (That is probably the most ridiculous part of the story), it is about HONESTY, and Character. Bush said when the leak first broke two years ago that, "No one in his administration was responsible for the leak, and if they were they would be held accountable." Two years latter, with the irrefutable evidence on the table that Rove was one of the sources of the leak, the White House is suddenly mum!
Dobbs said it best, it is not about legal issues here, it is about honesty, and once again this administration has demonstrated that it has no concept of the word. While much of the Conservasphere continues to redefine Hypocrisy in the face of obvious wrongdoing...

And finaly the White House Press Corps starts to show some balls. It's about time.

The truth of the matter is that this administration is one that is built on decieving the American People. And no ammount of spin is going to change that. I never put the REALITY BASED COMMUNITY crap on my blog, but I am begining to understand why that idea is so important. I can't fathom how people allow political partisanship to just close their eyes to REALITY. These people are lying to us, they have been since day one, maybe BEFORE day one.

Some are worried about this issue distracting us from the fight over Downing Street. But as Shakespear's Sister says in this excellent post, this issue and lying about Iraq, are one and the same.

"Practically and factually, that issue is information manipulation and message control, and allowing ideologically-driven and designed propaganda to trump fact-based intelligence. Philosophically, that issue is a severe and appalling breech of ethics, most notably the betrayal of the trust of the American people."

What truly disgusts me is the continuing tendency to "put lipstick on a pig." Cause when it's all said and done, a pig is a pig. The only real solace I take from any of this, is that the truth will come out. The bigger the lie, the harder it is to conceal. The American People are slowly but surely getting wise to the truth, and it's a good thing.

Update (Relevant Portions of Dobbs Transcript)

DOBBS: White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan today faced tough questions among the White House press corps about the leak of a CIA agent's name two years ago. Reporters demanding to know whether presidential adviser Karl Rove was the source of that leak. But no answers were forthcoming from the White House.

Joining me now for more on these developments, the former presidential adviser, David Gergen, who served four presidents. David Gergen is professor at Harvard University's School of Government, joining us tonight from Cambridge.

Good to have you with us, David.

DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: This is a remarkable shift over the course of the past 10 days. On July 1, Lawrence O'Donnell says Karl Rove is it. Now, Ambassador Joseph Wilson had said that nearly two years ago, but Lawrence O'Donnell's comments spurredr within 24 hours, reaction from Rove's attorney, and the issue was under way.

What do you make of it?

GERGEN: Well, Lou, I think that this is a complex case. And we shouldn't get caught up in our underwear so far.

DOBBS: We shouldn't get caught up, I'm sorry?

GERGEN: We shouldn't get caught up in our underwear about whether Karl Rove is in legal trouble.

DOBBS: Well, I don't think we -- I don't think we are.

GERGEN: I don't see -- well, I don't see what we know so far as indicating he's in legal trouble. There may be some political storm over this.

DOBBS: Right.

GERGEN: But what we know is that Karl Rove may have apparently told "TIME" magazine that Joe Wilson's wife, who worked at the agency, might have been behind his trip to Africa. That's not illegal on its face.

I mean, if he didn't disclose her name and didn't know her, didn't know that she was covert, there's no violation of the law. That is what he has publicly said.

DOBBS: Before we even -- I -- neither you nor I blessedly is an attorney. I'm not...

GERGEN: I'm a fallen attorney.

DOBBS: I am not particularly interested in the legal aspect of this so much right now...

GERGEN: Right.

DOBBS: ... as I am in both the politics, and frankly, the forthright, honest character of the people who make statements such as, it's ridiculous to suggest that Karl Rove was behind this. Ambassador Joe Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame, the CIA operative named in the Novak column, said straightforwardly, within just about a week's time in 2003, just about two years ago, that it was Karl Rove. And the White House was dismissive, and is now saying things like, well, he didn't use her name.

We're hearing some parsing, aren't we?

GERGEN: Well, we are hearing some parsing, but, you know, the law and politics do turn on subtle distinctions. And it's one thing to say a guy's wife at the CIA has something to do with this; it's a totally different thing to out a covert agent. That's what the distinction here is.

Now, so -- so if he... DOBBS: But while you do say -- while you do say law and politics may be nuanced and turn on subtle distinctions...

GERGEN: Right.

DOBBS: ... character and judgment often have to be less than nuanced, have to be forthright and turn on basic principles. And the fact of the matter is, you have the most important adviser to the president of the United States talking to a reporter, or more reporters possibly, including Matthew Cooper of "Time" magazine. This is remarkable.

GERGEN: Well, Lou, I don't think it's all that remarkable. Listen, a lot of White Houses, you know, put stories out, and the question is whether Karl Rove did anything wrong. That's the basic question we're trying to ask. And in terms of telling somebody, hey, a guy's wife at the CIA might have been behind it, on its face, that's not wrong. If he put her name out and he knew she was a covert agent, that would be wrong.

Now, so in terms of what actually happened at the time, it's not clear to me at all that Karl Rove -- and I don't agree with a lot of his politics...

DOBBS: I don't mean -- again, I don't want you to have to defend Karl Rove here, because we're talking about what is obviously the appearance. What is concerning and what is troubling, at least to me, David, is, one, and lack of a forthright position on the part of the White House, did he or did he not, that's straightforward. Two, this investigation has now taken longer than Watergate, and it's not reached a conclusion. That in itself is remarkable. And thirdly, "New York Times," Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Judith Miller is sitting in jail tonight on this issue, and she never even reported it.

GERGEN: Look, the -- there is a scandal in this whole thing, and that is that Judith Miller is in jail on a story she never reported. That is ridiculous on its face, and that woman ought to be set free, because this has gone way beyond what is appropriate.

I mean, she never -- if she had reported on the story, it would be different. She's not even a party to the story, original story.

So I agree totally with you on that.

I also agree, Lou, that in the two years that have passed, the White House could and should have been much more forthright and candid on what happened, so we didn't need to go through this monkey business of all this lawsuit and having Judy Miller go to jail over it.

So I do think that what happened since that time is, you know, is subject to a lot of serious criticism, because the White House should have cleaned this thing up right from the beginning. We shouldn't have this kind of legal probe. We shouldn't have to go through all this funny business.

On that, I totally agree with you. But if there's something here that Karl Rove did wrong in the initial instance, I don't see it yet. Did he lie to the grand jury? There's no evidence of that. So I don't think he's in legal trouble, but your point about what's happened since then I think is well taken. And I agree with you. I especially agree with you about Judy Miller.

DOBBS: Well, let's hope that we can get to the bottom of this.

GERGEN: We should get to the bottom of it.

DOBBS: With two years of investigative work by federal prosecutors, it's remarkable that we can't seem to reach a conclusion here.

GERGEN: I agree with that. And Karl Rove has a responsibility to help get this out. I mean, now that his name's in the middle of it, I do think he should come forward and say, listen, this is what I did, here is what happened, here's all I know about it, and we're going to get the rest of this cleaned up. Somebody gave the name out. We know that. And we don't yet know who that is. And it's possible somebody lied to the grand jury, and we need to know that. But I do think Karl Rove has got a responsibility to Joe Wilson and to everybody else to help clear it up.

DOBBS: It's not even clear at this point who the heck sent Ambassador Joe Wilson to Niger.

GERGEN: That's true, too.

DOBBS: Thank you very much, David Gergen, always good to have you here.

GERGEN: Take care.

Italics mine, and I will say it again, Dobbs cut right through the B.S. and got to the heart of the matter.

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