ROVE RAGE: HE'S NOT THE VILLAIN

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nypost/20050714/cm_nypost/roveragehe39snotthevillain/nc:742 ^

[kcvl]

A gleeful mob of Democrats and their news-media allies is demanding that President Bush immediately fire Karl Rove, his trusted adviser.

What's next? Torches and pitch forks?

Let's be clear: Clamoring for the president to abandon Rove, for the ostensible crime of publicly disclosing a CIA operative's identity, conveniently distracts from the real story here — and it's a tale that shows the Bush-bashers at their most disingenuous.

First, a recap.

In 2003, career diplomat and former Clinton national-security official Joseph Wilson, a CIA consultant, wrote a scathing commentary for The New York Times, charging that he had been sent to Africa at Vice President Dick Cheney's request before the war in Iraq to check out allegations from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium in Niger.

Wilson said he quickly concluded that the reports were unfounded — and that he so informed his superiors. Nevertheless, he continued, Bush included the allegation in his 2003 State of the Union Address and used it to justify making war on Iraq — knowing full well it was false.

Days later, columnist Robert Novak reported that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative and likely played a role in selecting him for the Africa mission — a charge Wilson swiftly denied, but which later was unequivocally substantiated in a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report.

The disclosure of Plame's name led to accusations that someone at the White House — in an effort to discredit Wilson — had maliciously disclosed his wife's CIA status, which might endanger her while violating the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Democrats demanded, and got, a special prosecutor to investigate.

[leadpenny]

. . . while Joseph Wilson, a disgraceful liar, skates.

[Echo Talon]

* Contrary to Wilson's claims, his presence on the mission was not authorized by CIA Director George Tenet or Vice President Cheney.

* Despite his insistence that Plame "had nothing to do with the trip," the Senate committee concluded that she had, indeed, "suggested his name" for the Africa mission.

Who sent this jackA**?

[Caipirabob]

What bothers me the most is with everything that's going on with the war, the nation and the world, the Democrats are using their time to chase Karl Rove around. They are so pathetic and such a waste of time and resources. I only wish the 2006 elections were sooner so we could purge them from our government for good.

[GoodWithBarbarians JustForKaos]

Great post from the NY Post! Thanks!

At first I saw Yahoo and couldn't believe they put it out, since it seems like most all of their news is from AP or Reuters.

This story is getting more bizarre with each addition. I'm beginning to think it's a trap for the far out left to fall into. Can't hurt to hope.

[gridlock]

That is the real story, all right. If you remember, at the time, all of the chattering class in Washington was going on and on about the sixteen words from the State of the Union address. This was the smoking gun that demostrated that Bush LIED! (and people DIED!). Novak very neatly put his finger on the critical piece that held that whole argument together, that Wilson was an independent actor who had no axe to grind. Novak obliterated Wilson's credibility by revealing that the whole trip was one big put-up job, and that he was just a mouthpiece for his wife.

But the story was too good to let go. The whole sixteen words was just too central to the Donk efforts to tear down the President and the war. So they had to circle the wagons aroung Wilson. But getting upset about the supposed revelation of Plame's covert status is like a blood dripping murderer criticizing the detective's tie.

[leprechaun9]

And little mention of Sandy Burglar destroying classified documents and possibly worse! Please Mr. President END ALL PRESS CONFERENCES and STOP THE PIMPS OF THE ELECTION INDUSTRY (MSM) FROM USING THEM AS 'GOTCHA' SESSIONS!

[ONETWOONE]

You are right on target. I have been harping on that all week long. Hillary and Shumer, how outraged were you on Sandy?

[gridlock]

Now, two years later, it's been revealed that, despite his earlier denials, Rove did in fact disclose to at least one journalist, Time magazine's Matt Cooper, that Wilson's wife (whom he did not cite by name) worked for the CIA.

Has this been revealed? I dunno. That "apparently" in the Cooper e-mail indicates to me that he could well not have.

If Plame's employment at CIA was common knowledge in the Washingon Press Corps, isn't this exactly what Cooper would have written back to TIME? If Rove revealed that Wilson got the mission assignment from his wife, but not that she worked for CIA, would not Cooper have used the word "apparently" to indicate that he was supplying information from his own recollection, rather than from Rove. If Rove told him that Plame used her position at CIA to assign her husband Wilson to the mission, isn't this exactly how Cooper would have summarized the information in the e-mail? It is the succinct way to transmit the central point that Wilson was not assigned by Cheney or Tenent and that the whole thing may have been a put-up job. And yet Cooper wrote it down in two stages, with the fact that Wilson was assigned by his wife attributed directly to Rove, and the fact that she worked for CIA was merely "apparent". The primary meaning of the word "apparent" means "open to view". In other words, common knowledge. I don't see how Cooper writes "apparently" in this sentence unless he was applying knowledge from some other source that Rove.

[goldstategop]

See Hugh Hewitt's blog this morning. He writes the press's collective brief in defense of Judith Miller denies that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA op and in any case the law wasn't broken. Then these hypocrites turn right around and demand Karl Rove's head on the same grounds they themselves assert don't exist. Remember, this is the same press that egged on the Democrats to call a special prosecutor to get conservative journalist Robert Novak. When that failed, their next target was Rove. The press is partisan - an opposition party and they're not fooling the American people into thinking where there's smoke there's fire. In the Rove situation, there's not even smoke. All this feigned outrage is just amazing to behold.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[edpc]

. . . while Joseph Wilson, a disgraceful liar, skates.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT

[leadpenny]

Another skater, Sandy Burglar, must be taking the picture.

[jocon307]

I am picking this thread, at random, to say what's been on my mind for days. The heck with Rove, Plame, Wilson, Miller, Cooper, et al. WHO CARES?

It is disgusting the way the dims and the media are getting away with this circus. Scores of people are blown to bits and dead in London England, killed by their fellow citizens, whose loyalty, it turns out was not to England, not to their fellow man, but to Allah, king of the murderers.

The democratic party needs to be obliterated, they do not give a fig about the lives of Americans. I will never, ever, ever, under any circumstances vote for a democrat again. Not for any office, anywhere. If my own child were to run for office as a dem (not very likely, but you never know) I'd vote for her opponent.

[Zacs Mom]

"What's next? Torches and pitch forks?"

[syriacus]

ROVE RAGE

Great title!!

[syriacus]

But getting upset about the supposed revelation of Plame's covert status is like a blood dripping murderer criticizing the detective's tie.

Good analogy.

[GraceCoolidge]

What I don't get is how stating that Plame works for the CIA means that she's an undercover operative. I think there are other people at the CIA, too, right? I just don't see the connection here. Working at the CIA doesn't automatically make you an undercover operative, does it? Where does Rove expose her as an undercover operative?

[Loyal Buckeye]

The media and the RATS have moved on to the penalty phase of the case (i.e., fire Rove) and are alleging that the Rove case, which they have constructed, is bogging down Bush's agenda. LOL.

This whole thing regarding Rove will be over by the Sunday talk shows because the assertion that Plame was not a covert agent is finally being more fully reported (USA Today, Friday edition).

[southland]

ping