Was Rove a White House Source or Just Another Player?

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 8, 2005 | Richard B. Schmitt

[YaYa123]

Was it Karl Rove, after all?

Or is President Bush's long-time political adviser getting a bum rap, fueled by wishful thinking of administration critics?

Nearly two years to the day after Robert Novak blew the cover of a CIA operative in a newspaper column, the mystery of who might have leaked the identity of Valerie Plame to Novak and other journalists only seems to be deepening.

The latest tantalizing clue involves Rove and a conversation he had with a Time magazine reporter, Matthew Cooper, in the days before the Novak column appeared.

The conversation was disclosed last week by Rove's own lawyer, who adds that his client didn't identify Plame or do anything wrong. Nobody else knows precisely what the two men discussed then, but special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently is interested in questioning Cooper about the conversation before wrapping up his investigation.

[YaYa123]

It's interesting. I couldn't wait for Monday night, I just knew Matthews would have O'Donnell on Hardball. But no. In fact, I think Matthews was absent, with Andrea Mitchell filling in, til Thursday night when Matthews returned and all talk was about London. Last night I knew Matthews was showing his interview with Bob Woodward. No way would I watch another NBC book plug for Woodward.

[mikenash]

For argument sake even if it is Rove, it wont bring Bush down, and that is what matters. It would just be a mistake by Rove.

[Clemenza]

Karl Rove is Keyser Soze.

[YaYa123]

drats! I had just read through #23 one time, and I don't even remember the poster's screen name. It was quite a long post, very detailed, with no obscenity. Could the moderator tell me why it was pulled?

Thanks.

[YaYa123]

I never heard the legend of Keyser Soze, but your reference to him got me googling.


http://www.whysanity.net/monos/usual.html

[hflynn]

According to Michael Isikoff

NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. (The e-mail was authenticated by a source intimately familiar with Time's editorial handling of the Wilson story, but who has asked not to be identified because of the magazine's corporate decision not to disclose its contents.) Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip." Wilson's wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger... "

Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative.

According to Michael Isikoff the Cooper e-mail shows no inconsistency between the e-mail and Karl Rove's Grand Jury testimony. Karl Rove did not commit perjury and this hold attempt to get Rove fired is BS.

[Gaffer]

Who cares? This Plame thing is a meaningless diversion in a sea of meaningless, trumped-up charges that constantly spew from the mouths of the libs. Honestly, the charges should be dealt with the same way as a parent would do with a terrible two-year old not wanting to go to bed; grab them and put them in their crib!