I know we all know this but it bears repeating. Here’s a little segment from the September 29, 2003 NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
JIM LEHRER: …White House officials denied today that political chief Karl Rove approved leaking an intelligence agent’s name. The agent’s husband is former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Last summer, he criticized the president’s claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa. Days later, it came out his wife worked for the CIA. Yesterday, the “Washington Post” reported top White House aides leaked the name, possibly violating the law. Wilson said it was retaliation, and he said Rove at least condoned it. Today a White House spokesman denied it, but reporters peppered him with questions.
SCOTT McCLELLAN: I’ve said that it’s not true. I have spoken with Karl Rove. I’m not going to get into conversations that the president has with advisors or staff or anything of that nature. That’s not my practice.
REPORTER: The president has a factual basis for knowing…
SCOTT McCLELLAN: I said it publicly. I said that…
REPORTER: I’m not asking what you said. The president has a factual basis.
SCOTT McCLELLAN: He’s aware of what I’ve said that there is simply no truth to that suggestion.
JIM LEHRER: The spokesman said anyone who did leak classified information would be fired, and he said the justice department should pursue the matter.
Then let’s not forget this from a October 8, 2003 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article:
Bush told reporters in a question-and-answer session during a Cabinet meeting that he did not know “if we’re going to find out” the identity of the administration officials who Novak said told him about Plame’s identity.
“I have no idea whether we’ll find out who the leaker is,” Bush added, noting that “this is a large administration, and there’s a lot of senior officials.”
Here’s a little dispatch from Mike Allen from aboard Air Force One on January 5, 2004.
McClellan said Bush has directed his aides to “cooperate fully in this investigation.” Citing an ongoing investigation, however, he would not say whether the president thinks that extends to signing the forms.
“That’s asking a specific question about matters that should be directed to the career officials at the Department of Justice,” McClellan said. “The president has always said that leaking classified information is a serious matter, and certainly no one wants to get to the bottom of this more than he does.”
And then there is this:
White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied that anyone in the White House had been authorized to leak Plame’s undercover status, saying, “That is not the way this White House operates.”
Asked if he were ruling out administration involvement, McClellan said: “I’m saying no one was certainly given any authority to do anything of that nature . . .”
And this:
After spending the first part of the week dodging reporters’s questions, the President regarded the disclosure as “a very serious matter” and has vowed to fire anybody responsible. “If the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of,” Bush said.
So, my question is, “how has Karl Rove been taken care of?” Is there no price to pay for this very serious matter? Why does Karl Rove still have a job?