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July 12, 2005
Backtracking B.S.
The Karl Rove/Valerie Plame story grows deeper and the White House is scrambling.
At Monday's daily White House press gaggle, spokesman Scott McClellan sounded very different on the subject of Rove and Plame than he did in October 2003.
Back then, McClellan dismissed as ridiculous speculation that Rove had been the "senior White House official" who leaked Plame's classified identity to several journalists. President Bush also said at the time that any staff member found to have leaked such information would be fired.
Monday, McClellan refused to discuss Rove's possible role in the leak or President Bush's termination pledge, and took it on the chin from numerous reporters present.
Apparently, the question is no longer whether or not Rove leaked Plame's identity, but whether he did so "knowing" that she was a covert operative -- the difference between a felony and just bad press.
Given Rove's history of sly political warfare, and his superior intellect, we are more than a little bit dubious that he would seek to discredit an administration critic without knowing exactly what he was doing.
Remember, this is a man who very likely had his candidate's own campaign office bugged during a Texas Governor's race (the FBI's conclusion), to tarnish his Democratic opponent.
This is a man who is a master of the political takedown, going right for his opponent's jugular -- see Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Karl Rove knows exactly what he's doing, and don't believe his lawyer's attempted "Clintonian" parsing of the facts to save his client's ass.
Tuesday's NY Times covers some of the history and speculates on the possible developing scandal, and its potential effect on the Bush second-term agenda.
Quite simply, it's too early to tell how this will play out, but the story is finally growing legs.
Posted by houtopia at July 12, 2005 01:23 AM