All Roads Lead To Rove
Former journalist and current journalism prof Bill Israel, writing in Editor & Publisher, connects Karl Rove to the Plame affair:
In teaching with him, I learned Rove assumes command over any political enterprise he engages. He insists on absolute discipline from staff: nothing escapes him; no one who works with him moves without his direction. In Texas, though he was called "the prime minister" to Gov. George W. Bush, it might have been "Lord," as in the divine, for when it came to politics and policy, it was Rove who gave, and Rove who took away.Little has changed since the Bush presidency; all roads still lead to Rove.
Consequently, when former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson challenged President Bush’s embrace of the British notion that Saddam Hussein imported uranium from Niger to produce nuclear weapons, retaliation by Rove was never in doubt. While it is reporters Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of The New York Times who now face jail time, the retaliation came through Rove-uber-outlet Robert Novak, who blew the cover of Wilson’s wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame.
The problem, as always, in dealing with Rove, is establishing a clear chain of culpability. Rove once described himself as a die-hard Nixonite; he is, like the former president, both student and master of plausible deniability. (This past weekend, in confirming that Rove was indeed a source for Matthew Cooper, Rove's lawyer said his client "never knowingly disclosed classified information.") That is precisely why prosecutor Fitzgerald in this case must document the pattern of Rove’s behavior, whether journalists published, or not.
For in this case, Rove, improving on Macchiavelli, has bet that reporters won’t rat their relationship with the administration’s most important political source. How better for him to operate without constraint, or to camouflage breaking the law, than under the cover of journalists and journalism, protected by the First Amendment?
Karl Rove is in my experience with him the brightest and most affable of companions; perhaps I have been coopted, for I genuinely treasure his friendship. But neither charm nor political power should be permitted to subvert the First Amendment, which is intended to insure that reporters and citizens burrow fully and publicly into government, not insulate its players from felony, or reality.
Are we to understand that Time Magazine and the New York Fucking Times sat on evidence incriminating Karl Rove throughout the campaign last fall?
Credulity is strained.
Crid at July 6, 2005 6:53 AM
the ultimate proof of journalistic self-interest (shoot pictures of the man who sets himself on fire, but don't help put out the flames), or ... an end to the flim flam accusations that the liberal mainstream media is out to get bush.
david at July 6, 2005 8:08 AM
Yeah, it sure does put an end to that myth.
Jim Treacher at July 6, 2005 9:14 AM
I would hope that everyone here agrees if the implications ARE true, and that Rove leaked a protected CIA agents identity as political payback, that he should be tried and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Anyone disagree with that for any reason?
eric at July 6, 2005 11:42 AM
Come on, really. I'm sorry, but is anyone here really surprised that a member of the Bush Administration showed a blatant disregard for the law and human life?
Please.
Goddyss at July 6, 2005 12:49 PM
TAKE TWO! (Sorry Amy)
> I would hope that everyone here agrees...
Eric. Seriously.
> ...if the implications ARE true...
Which ones? That the Executive Branch is operated by craven, bloodthirty vipers who collect retarded schoolchildren's toes on string like Christmas popcorn and will stop at nothing, NOTHING, in their rapacious conquest of our dear planet?
Rove testified before the Grand Jury, and waived any claim to confidentiality from reporters with whom he spoke about this matter: Such reporters are therefore free to spill. (And of course, his boss is known for being a loyalty/discretion freak of the fiercest streak since Nixon.) And NOVAK testified before the GJ. Who's keeping secrets here?
I'm not even sure Plame was an agent. I think she was what you'd called a "white wine operative," meaning she knew how to keep up her end of a conversation at DC parties, where the source of her paycheck was known to all, including Achmed, the boy with the hors d'oeuvres... Even AFTER she had the twin newborns to care for.
Do me a favor and read this, and see this. Thereafter, we won't have to pretend that some monstrous person ratted James Bond out to Auric Goldfinger. I mean, since when does anyone care so much about the CIA anyway?
PS for wiggle room: I have no idea what's going on here and don't doubt that there's a very simple, (ie, damaging to Rove) explanation. But I have no idea what it could be. Or why the Times didn't squeal about it BEFORE last November 2. I suspect people who hate Rove are pretending that this is the end of the world in the same way that some people used to complain about Clinton's blowjobs: It may find traction in the hearts of the dim.
Crid at July 6, 2005 6:18 PM
It's platelets day, so I'm a quart low. Links described abover are here and here. Again, sorry
Cridland at July 6, 2005 7:11 PM
I wish I could give blood too, Crid. They don't accept it from whores like me, however.
Lena-doodle-doo at July 6, 2005 9:34 PM
The process got a little more intrusive a couple months ago. Now, before EACH apheresis, you have a fifteen-minute interview with a tech who looks you in the eye while asking about all the different ways that people have fun, and you have to admit that you haven't tried any of them.
Crid at July 7, 2005 6:58 AM
I have a brother in law named Bart, and at family functions I always lob out a softball statement, such as "child molesters are bad people", and it always smacks him right between the eyes, and then he comes out swinging madly trying to defend child molesters with evidence dating back to the Roman Empire that child molesting is a normal thing, and if we were more like the Romans, America wouldn't be in the state is in today. Then he blames the ACLU for defending pornography, because that is where the real problem lies.
Crid- you have "RAWLINGS" imbedded in your forehead. But thanks for playing.
eric at July 7, 2005 8:46 AM
That's our Eric. Stirring the pot to see what bubbles up.
:giggle:
Goddyss at July 7, 2005 9:07 AM
Awright then... No more whining about Rove?
Crid at July 7, 2005 9:20 AM
Deal- unless he is convicted, then inevitably pardoned.
(And yes, RB, Clinton should never have pardoned Mark Rich...)
eric at July 7, 2005 9:30 AM
Crid, please don't bother us with facts and reason. This is ROVE we're talking about. Also, somewhere out there is someone named Bart.
Jim Treacher at July 7, 2005 10:32 AM
> unless he is convicted, then inevitably...
Stradler!
Crid at July 7, 2005 3:56 PM
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