Karl Rove assured us that he did not leak Valerie Plame’s name. Scott McClellan said it was ridiculous to suggest such a thing. The President said he did not know of “anybody in my administration who leaked classified information.”
They lied and parsed. There are important legal questions and a wide ranging grand jury investigation going on. It is fun to speculate on who did what, and when, and what the consequences might be. But, at the end of the day, we don’t have enough facts to make an educated guess about what indictments might be coming down, if any.
And, we can be sure that Bush will pardon his closest friend if he is ever convicted of a crime.
No, the legal angle to the Rove/Plame story is not the correct one to pursue. The correct angle is political.
:::flip:::
As long as Rove is in the White House, the White House cannot answer the basic question:
“If Rove concealed the fact that he was a leaker from the President, why hasn’t the President fired him?”
or this one:
“If Rove didn’t conceal the fact that was a leaker from the President, then the President has been engaged in a cover-up, and possible obstruction of justice. What did the President tell Fitzgerald?”
If we want to send the administration into a permanent bunker mentality, all we have to do is coordinate our message. Keep asking those two questions. Over and over and over.
We need Reid and Pelosi to take the lead. We need talking heads on the cable news. Outraged ex-intelligence officers are the best cudgel for this. We need Air America and the blogs to hit hard on this.
If they insist on keeping Rove in the White House, we have to make them pay a daily price. It will keep them from getting their message out, and it will help us on all fronts. It will open a schism in the GOP, it will further erode their credibility, especially on terrorism and national defense.
With the Supreme Court vacancies coming up, we need to go on offense, and blunt the potential for a nuclear option. It’s time to fight.
