Root of the Rove controversy is the war in Iraq

President Bush said Wednesday that he will reserve judgment on Karl Rove’s possible involvement in the leaking of a CIA agent's identity until the special prosecutor’s criminal investigation into the matter is complete.

"This is a serious investigation," Bush said at the end of a meeting with his Cabinet, with Rove, his deputy chief of staff, sitting just behind him. "I will be more than happy to comment on this matter once this investigation is completed,” Bush said.

While the White House seemingly stands by its man, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory discusses the investigation, how the administration is expected to proceed, and how the root of the scandal is once again the controversial justifications for the war in Iraq.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, came to Rove’s defense during a press briefing Tuesday by saying, “Any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president. They wouldn’t be working here at the White House if they didn’t.” What is the likelihood that Bush would ever actually fire Rove, a close confidant and the architect of his re-election campaign? I think, were Karl Rove to be indicted for any crime, it would be impossible for the president to keep him on. Short of that, I don’t think that he will go anywhere. I think the president will stand behind him.

If you look, the president’s past comments were pretty clear: that anyone who is responsible for leaking classified information, which is a crime, would be fired. Until and unless that’s proven in this case, I don’t think that Karl Rove will go anywhere.

Hmmm...this story is interesting...

Something doesn't add up about why Judith Miller went to jail. The New York Times reporter didn't write a story about the Valerie Plame case and had a waiver from her source in order to talk about it to the grand jury. But she insisted on going to jail anyway. Speculation is mounting that Miller is protecting herself, that Miller was herself a source of information about Plame that made it to several Bush administration officials and was then recycled to columnist Robert Novak. He, then, disclosed Plame's employment by the CIA and her role in arranging for her husband Joe Wilson's mission to Africa to investigate the Iraq-uranium link.

This would help explain why Miller didn't write a story about the case. It would be difficult for Miller to write a story when she was so deeply involved in how it developed. Disclosure of her role then or now would be extremely embarrassing.

She could be the key to exonerating Bush administration officials of possible violations of the law against knowingly disclosing the identities of covert intelligence agents. If they were simply passing along information from Miller or some other journalist about Joseph Wilson's wife, then they can't be accused of deliberately disclosing classified information about Plame's identity.

The more likely explanation is that Miller is protecting private discussions with administration officials, and that during those discussions she provided or confirmed information about Plame's identity. This would make sense. Both Miller and Plame covered the subject of weapons of mass destruction and it was likely that they knew one another, or at least were aware of each other's work in this field.

Mens News Daily

Credit to “concerned about politics” for directing me to the comments on an article that questions the possibility that this whole Wilson debacle might well have been a set up by the dems to smear some dirt on the President’s reputation for honesty by sending an operative to Iraq. Obviously, why else would Wilson publish an op-ed piece in the Gray Lady of liberalism?

Miller would have no hesitation of dumping more dirt on Rove if he in fact were her source. In fact back in November or thereabouts Rove executed a blank check allowing anyone do disclose anything he might have said regarding Wilson’s wife. Obviously Miller’s source is not Rove.

The most logical conclusion to come to is the Miller is protecting herself, in the event that she is the source, or that she is protecting a democrat or foreign spy. That last option is hard to imagine I must say.

The fact is that Tenant didn’t authorize the trip and Rove didn’t even know Wilson; but the WH certainly must have known Wilson’s bias and politics. Those guys don’t live in Peoria - no offense to the great Americans who do live there, but Peoria is not exactly within the Beltway.

The fact that the Dems are talking about Rove being the source rules him out. They have a history of pointing the finger in the opposite directions so to FourtySeven who said: if it DOES come out that Rove NAMED Plame to Cooper, then we should be consistent and demand his resignation take heart brother, Rove is a master at his profession and wouldn’t do anything so stupid as to disclose a CIA undercover agent, and especially not to his “good friend” Cooper. What I’ve heard and can believe is that Cooper tried to verify that the VP sent Wilson and was told by Rove to be careful with that angle because he might be sticking his neck out. That I can believe since Rove would have been putting out a firestorm that would inevitable burn as a result of Cooper’s allegations. As we all know, the truth never catches up with the slander. The caveat of course is that when you go fishing for marlin you might just catch a shark. Eventually you keep what is good to eat and throwaway the rest.

Does anyone reading this post really believe that Niger did not sell yellowcake to Iraq? You have a seller who needs cash and you have a buyer with stacks of it. Is this too much of a stretch for anyone? I doubt it. Haven’t we learned anything from the oil for food scam where even France and Germany were selling good and weapons to Iraq? Excuse me but Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with minimal government services and insufficient funds to develop its resource base; however, it does have some of the world's largest uranium deposits. I’d call that a natural resource, and that’s what do governments do? They exploit them. Of course it’s not nice to sell Atom Bomb material to Iraq, so don’t expect to see truckloads of yellowcake caravanning in open daylight.

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