The splitting hairs has already begun. But it is clear Karl Rove was involved at some level in outting Valerie Plame.

I love this from Shakespear's Sister:

His defense so far seems to be that he didn't say her name, just "Wilson's wife," and didn't know that she was undercover, just that she was CIA.

So, once again, we're being asked to rid ourselves of all common sense and logic to accept the administration's excuses. We are instead meant to believe that Karl Rove, an unapologetic political ideologue and opportunist, widely regarded as perhaps the dirtiest trickster in the business with a history of vengeful tactics against political opponents, and Bush's right hand man, a political advisor who ascended to a permanent position in the White House, affording him some senior level of security clearance, knew that "Wilson's wife" was a CIA operative, but didn't know that she was undercover and was talking to Cooper "to discourage Time from publishing things that turned out to be false," not to punish Wilson for reporting that the intelligence the administration was using to bolster their case for war was bullshit even though the Downing Street Memos have noted that they were fixing the intelligence around the policy. Forget Occam's Razor, which suggests that the most logical explanation is usually the right one, and instead grab with both hands the most convoluted explanation, which coincidentally exonerates Rove of all wrongdoing.

And Americablog asks some very relevant questions:

1. Whether he said "Valerie Plame" or "Wilson's wife" is irrelevant. It's the same thing, and if Bush tolerates this "definition of 'is'" garbage from Rove, well, then we really have a story.

2. Bush said he wanted to get to the bottom of this over a year ago. Why then did we have to waste all this money on a special prosecutor and a grand jury if Rove knew from day one that he was the guy who leaked Plame's identity? If Rove was so innocent, why didn't he just come forward immediately and say "yeah, it was me, but I didn't realize she was undercover"? Did he tell the president it was him? And if so, why didn't the president go public and put this investigation to an end? Or did Rove refuse the president's request and NOT come forward a year ago? And if so, what is he still doing working in the white House?

3. Perhaps it's legally relevant if Rove "knew" Plame was undercover or not, but it's not relevant in terms of him keeping his job. Rove intentionally outed a CIA agent working on WMD, it is irrelevant whether he did or didn't know if she was an undercover agent. First off, he knew she wasn't THAT public about her identity or there'd have been no need to "out" here - everyone would have known her already.

Second, the very fact that he appears to be claiming that he did NOT know about her undercover status is reason enough to fire him now. How dare the top political aide to the president out a CIA agent and not even think of checking whether she's undercover? I have worked before with CIA agents at several points in my career. The FIRST thing you learn is NOT to out them, period. If you don't know that they have some public CIA job, like spokesman, then you know from day one that you do NOT tell ANYONE who they are. It is totally unbelievable that Rove didn't know this simple fact about Washington - you don't tell people who is and who isn't CIA. Rove knew that, and he chose to out an agent working on WMD. The man should be fired.

Without doubt, the Wizbang piece will be just one of many to spin this story as a NON story. But it looks like Mr. Rove is the scumbag that most of us suspected him to be. Whether he will pay for that fact is doubtful.

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» Flogging a Dead Frog from Kerfuffles
Think about the time-line of supposed "outing" of Jane Bond .... The first time that Valerie Plame's name appeared connected to the CIA ... was on July 14th, 2003, in a syndicated column by Robert Novak. But actually that column had to have been writ... [Read More]

Tracked on July 10, 2005 03:03 PM

» Breaking News: Joe Wilson is a Polygamist!!! from After School Snack
Rove appears to be claiming that there was no intentional outing of Plame, as he never referred to her by name (only as "Wilson's wife"), and didn't know that she was a covert agent. This, as numerous other bloggers have pointed out, would be ridicul... [Read More]

Tracked on July 11, 2005 10:40 AM