"I've Already Said Too Much"
Time Magazine's Matt Cooper on Sunday told a little more to his readers about the leak investigation that's put a New York Times reporter in jail and kept heat on the White House. He said it was Karl Rove who told him - and not visa versa - that former ambassador Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction. That ends of few days of slant and speculation in the 'sphere. The piece requires a Time subscription, but the Daily Kos makes available the key parts.
Cooper also recalled Rove telling him at the end of their conversation, "I've already said too much." Cooper was careful to say this doesn't necessarily mean Rove knew what he was saying violated the law - it is illegal to out a covert agent. It could have meant Rove, often described favorably as Bush's Brain and Turd Blossom, had to hang up and do something else, Cooper wrote.
The piece confirms another fact: Another source in the administration who told him about agent Valerie Plame was Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
Cooper, whose cooperation with a grand jury investigating the leak and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spared him from jail, sums up this way:
So did Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No. Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the "agency" on "WMD"? Yes. When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself impermissible? I don't know. Is any of this a crime? Beats me. At this point, I'm as curious as anyone else to see what Patrick Fitzgerald has.
The case began after columnist Robert Novak published Plame's name and position in July 2003, citing two administration officials soon after her husband wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times that accused the administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq. Novak column here.
NYU journalism prof Jay Rosen goes long and deep in a Huffington Post piece explaining why the White House press corps seems to have finally grown teeth, given the way they tore into Bush spokesman Scott McClellan last week.
The press attacks when it feels openly lied to. (Emphasis on "openly.") Also when it senses weakness, which of course means it's safer to attack.
Also, Rosen writes that the media's grilling occurred only after the prosecutor "changed the power equation." Rosen takes a long sip from a post on point from Whiskey Bar, a lefty Philadelphia blog.
And he warns off anyone planning to canonize Joe Wilson, linking to Daily Howler piece that examines credibility problems that the former Iraqi ambassador has had. What's different from the Howler's piece and many G.O.P.-inspired attacks on Wilson last week? The Daily Howler is an equal opportunity iconoclast. Howler wrote "some libs have now caught a virus from the kooky talk-show right."
The sad part is that anyone is actually buying the notion that ANY of this is about Wilson's credibility or lack of it. The question is, when the President and McClellan said repeatedly that Rove was not involved, were they intentionally lying to the American people, or had they been lied TO?
"So did Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No." + "The case began after columnist Robert Novak published Plame's name and position in July 2003" = Nothing. Zero. Nada. Nichts. And that's just the math, not the philosophy. However, feel free to use those newly grown teeth [coff] to chew on this non-story for a few more weeks. Personally, I'd prefer you lap poodles in the media [coff, coff] pursue more stories about sharks and Natalee... ...you do less harm to the debate that way.
nice to have you back, wm. you bring us t-shirts?
There is NO STORY HERE. Feel free to keep biting WHPC, you will end up over reaching and when it comes out that it was Wilson/Powell/Armitage/Miller, wtach this story in the immortal words of Mike Tyson "fade into bolivian"
It doesn't take a seasoned reporter to know that the more people say that something ISN'T a story, the more confident you should be that there IS a story there. And I love how for the Bushies, digging up the source of the leak was worthy of a multi-year, multimillion-dollar federal investigation UNTIL it became clear Rove was involved. Now it's a non-starter. Classic. And it's funny how GWB has changed his tune from "anyone found to be involved in the leak will be fired" to "anyone found to have done something illegal" will be fired. I guess it depends on what your definition of "is" is, right?