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Plame, By Any Other Name: Does Rove's current position pass the smell test?
Wash. Post ^ | Monday, July 11, 2005; 1:21 PM | Dan Froooooomkin

Posted on 07/11/2005 12:53:39 PM PDT by rface

There is no longer any question that top presidential adviser Karl Rove is a key player in the Valerie Plame case.

[ snip ]

But let's look at what we can conclude from all this:

· The latest news reports indicate that Rove is the source who Cooper was trying to protect until last week -- and that Rove tipped Cooper about Plame three days before Robert Novak published his now-famous column exposing Plame's identity.

[ snip ]

· Rove and his lawyer's denials that he was involved in telling reporters about Plame now appear to be at best based on Clintonian hairsplitting about whether he literally used her name and identified her as covert or he simply described her as the CIA-employed wife of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, the administration critic that White House was eager to discredit at the time.

· President Bush and press secretary Scott McClellan's denials that Rove was involved in the Plame matter now appear to be at best based on the position that their responses to broad questions about Rove and Plame were met with narrowly constructed responses specifically about whether Rove leaked "classified information." Or is it possible Rove lied to them?

[ snip ]

If Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, longtime friend and deputy chief of staff is actually indicted by Fitzgerald -- which now appears to be a possibility -- it would be an enormous blow to Bush's second term. Until Fitzgerald wraps up his highly secretive investigation, however, that's all just speculation.

So let's ask ourselves some more practical questions instead:

· Does Rove's current position pass the smell test?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cialeak
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To: jackbenimble

And her name is Plame, not "Plume".

Yeah, we can all see how principled you are.

Jerk


121 posted on 07/11/2005 2:57:45 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: cyncooper

"it's looking fine for Rove"

Really? Did you read the briefing. Despite numerous opportunities from all the questions he was peppered with today, McClellan could bring himself to explicitly defend Rove, citing the investigation, which hadn't stopped him from defending Rove before. Read the briefing. It's damning for what he doesn't say in Rove's defense. That's troubling, no?


122 posted on 07/11/2005 2:58:50 PM PDT by quesney
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To: cyncooper

Brit Hume is about to report on this now on Fox....time for a brewski :o)


123 posted on 07/11/2005 3:00:49 PM PDT by Liberty Valance ( Howdy!)
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To: easymoney

Spare me your lectures.


124 posted on 07/11/2005 3:03:12 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: quesney

LOL


125 posted on 07/11/2005 3:04:47 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: rface
The mainstream liberals surpass the kookiness of the most extreme Clinton-haters in the 1990s. Does anyone really think that left-wing journalists are going to go to jail to protect Karl Rove?

Further, the Washington Post must be smoking some pretty strong crack if they believe that Cooper's e-mail implicates Karl Rove. In fact, it's the clearest evidence yet that Rove was not the leaker. The first line of the e-mail indicates that Cooper already had his topic -- Plame's role in authorizing her husband's trip to Niger -- before the conversation even began. Cooper wanted to know what Karl Rove knew about the already-established topic. Thus, if Karl Rove was the leaker of the information, he didn't leak it to Plame.

-Michael McCullough (aka "DallasMike")

126 posted on 07/11/2005 3:04:59 PM PDT by DallasMike
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To: quesney

"That's troubling, no?"

Who cares what a pr hack has to say?


127 posted on 07/11/2005 3:06:46 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Liberty Valance

Saw it...Brit referred to it as the media obsession of the summer.

And just when you think Terry Moran couldn't be more obnoxious, the clip they played of him saying how Rove had been "caught redhanded" and saying McClellan "all of a sudden had respect for the process"...LOL

What an effete dink.


128 posted on 07/11/2005 3:07:01 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: Liberty Valance

watching Brit too. His show usually gives an objective analysis and is a good gage of how a situation will go.


129 posted on 07/11/2005 3:07:32 PM PDT by 4integrity
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To: cyncooper
Terry Moran couldn't be more obnoxious

You summed that up nicely. I almost spit perfectly good Newcastle Ale on my keyboard when Terry went off. What a tool he is. ABC must be proud.
130 posted on 07/11/2005 3:11:44 PM PDT by Liberty Valance ( Howdy!)
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To: quesney
Rove is made of stern stuff, and so is the rest of this White House bunch. He is not going to turn tail and run like John Sununu did. He will not be indicted, the moonbats will go crazy for a while, and that will be the end of it. Republicans control Congress so there will be no Congressional hearings or investigations. Bush and Cheney are not running in 2008, so they don't need to fire Rove over this either, and they won't.

People forget that sometimes federal investigations DO end without indictments! There is no evidence of crimes committed here, by Karl Rove or anyone else.

The one thing that still POs me about the reporting on this is that the MSM continue to call Valerie Plame a CIA "agent." They know full well that in the minds of their readers and viewers, the word "agent" conjures up the image of a U.S. spy undercover in some dangerous part of the world, not an analyst with a cushy desk job at Langley which is what Plame is. People who know no better are going to be agitated at the thought of anyone in the White House leaking the name of a real spy who could have been killed as a result. They could not care less about leaking the name of a garden-variety CIA desk analyst, especially one who couldn't wait to appear in Vanity Fair and whose career hardly seems to have suffered as a result of the revelation. The MSM very deliberately using language to try to drum up public outrage where none is deserved.

131 posted on 07/11/2005 3:12:57 PM PDT by Dems_R_Losers (We will NEVER surrender! -- Churchill)
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To: Dems_R_Losers

Next we'll be treated to the results of an ABC/Moveon.org opinion poll...

The MSM is a tool of the Democrat Party! But I repeat myself...


132 posted on 07/11/2005 3:25:47 PM PDT by Liberty Valance ( Howdy!)
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To: surely_you_jest
"My point is this - from now until early spring of next year is "prime time" for the President to get things done. We don't need a lot of high-visibility distractions between now and then. Particularly as relates to the Presidents primary on-scene day-to-day political adviser."

I see. So, in order for Leftists to achieve political victory, all that's necessary is for them to "make an issue" of just about anything or anyone.

Strangely, they seem to be quite willing to do that. And they're doing it now. And they've *been* doing it since Bush took office.

133 posted on 07/11/2005 3:37:15 PM PDT by Reactionary
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To: Chuck54

If it's clear and obvous that there's no there there, how has a Bush appointee missed that for more than two years? If it were simple, it'd be over. I can only conclude that it isn't simple.


134 posted on 07/11/2005 3:39:27 PM PDT by ReignOfError
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To: Dems_R_Losers
"People who know no better are going to be agitated at the thought of anyone in the White House leaking the name of a real spy who could have been killed as a result."

What everyone conviently forgets is that Wilson's Niger story was a setup. It was undertaken by Plame and Wilson to discredit the president. Wilson's yellowcake story was proven conclusively to be an outright fabrication.

Yet we're still supposed to believe that Rove's the bad guy here? Really.

135 posted on 07/11/2005 3:42:27 PM PDT by Reactionary
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To: Reactionary
So, in order for Leftists to achieve political victory, all that's necessary is for them to "make an issue" of just about anything or anyone.

No. But it sure can gum up the works, and slow things down. And we are running out of time - we don't need to be in the position of having the clock run out on us on some petty BS like this.

136 posted on 07/11/2005 3:43:18 PM PDT by surely_you_jest
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To: quesney

clarification:

Really? Did you read the briefing? Despite numerous opportunities from all the questions he was peppered with today, McClellan **COULD NOT** bring himself to explicitly defend Rove, citing the investigation, which hadn't stopped him from defending Rove before. Read the briefing. It's damning for what he doesn't say in Rove's defense. That's troubling, no?


137 posted on 07/11/2005 3:56:57 PM PDT by quesney
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To: easymoney
This all has as much to do with appearance as it does with facts.

This dog and pony show has been staged to divert attention from other elements of this case. When Wilson wrote the op ed for the NY Times, he revealed information that he had gained while representing the CIA. Wilson had no authority to release this information since the CIA had sole authority to assigned a security classification to the material. In short, Wilson committed a criminal act. Sadly, he is like Sandy Berger and will never be called to account. Any common slob that has worked with classified information over their career knows that they would be doing 20 years to life if they pulled the same stunts as these prima donna Democrat operatives.

138 posted on 07/11/2005 4:04:22 PM PDT by Ben Hecks
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To: 4integrity

Exactly. Lautenberg...I can't even stand looking at him. He always looks like he needs grooming!


139 posted on 07/11/2005 4:45:20 PM PDT by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done more for this country than any of us will ever know! :))
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To: Ben Hecks

This dog and pony show has been staged to divert attention from other elements of this case. When Wilson wrote the op ed for the NY Times, he revealed information that he had gained while representing the CIA. Wilson had no authority to release this information since the CIA had sole authority to assigned a security classification to the material. In short, Wilson committed a criminal act.

DING! DING! DING!...Another Winner!

Also, anyone who has ever worked in a Special Access Program would ask;

Since Joe baby hadn't worked for the US Government in over 4 years did he have an active security clearance with current 5 year background investigation? Or did the DNC moles at the CIA give hm access to classified info with out one, in their "Rush to Judgement"?


140 posted on 07/11/2005 4:52:07 PM PDT by Wristpin ( Varitek says to A-Rod: "We don't throw at .260 hitters.....")
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