Rove-gate???

Good...hopefully the house of cards will be falling sooner than later over this...

White House Deflects Questions on Rove as RNC Defends Him
By Edwin Chen and Warren Vieth, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON -- The White House won't talk about Karl Rove. But as the furor over President Bush's chief political strategist continues, Republican leaders have found other ways to get their points across.

For the second consecutive day, White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to answer questions about Rove's possible role in disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA operative, saying on Tuesday -- as he had the day before -- that any comments might damage an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter.

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"I want to be helpful to the investigation. I don't want to jeopardize anything in that investigation," McClellan said during another contentious briefing as reporters bombarded him with questions about the White House deputy chief of staff.

Yet, at the same time, the Republican National Committee -- closely allied with the White House and chaired by Rove protege Ken Mehlman -- distributed a 3 1/2-page set of talking points defending the president's chief political strategist and attacking Democrats and the CIA operative's husband, an outspoken critic of the administration's Iraq policy.

"The RNC is trying to get the attention off the White House," said David Gergen, a Harvard University government professor who has worked for presidents of both parties. "A week ago, this was all about the press. Now it's back to the White House, which is not what they want."

The controversy exploded in recent days after disclosures that Rove was a source for a July 17, 2003, article on Time magazine's Web site. That article questioned whether the Bush administration had "declared war" on former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had traveled to Africa in 2002 to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase weapons-grade uranium.

On July 6, 2003, The New York Times published an op-ed article by Wilson criticizing those claims -- a key underpinning for the White House's case for invading Iraq. The article on Time magazine's Web site, co-authored by reporter Matthew Cooper, cited "some government officials" as identifying Wilson's wife as CIA officer Valerie Plame and saying that she had been involved in dispatching her husband to Africa.

In a court proceeding last week, Cooper said his source had authorized him to reveal his identity to a federal grand jury investigating whether Plame's public outing violated a federal law barring disclosure of a covert agent's identity. The decision allowed Cooper to avoid a jail term for refusing a special prosecutor's order to reveal a confidential source. New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for refusing a similar order to reveal her sources.

Although Cooper did not publicly identify Rove as his source, Newsweek magazine on Sunday published the contents of a 2003 e-mail from the reporter to his editors, saying Rove had told him that Wilson's trip had been authorized by his wife.

McClellan refused to square the latest disclosures with his previous assertions in September and October of 2003 that Rove was not involved in leaking Plame's identity to the media. "The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved," McClellan said at the time.

But now, McClellan said Tuesday, it would be inappropriate for him to discuss the matter because of the ongoing investigation.

However, Republican officials had no such reservations. The RNC talking points, distributed to Republicans on Capitol Hill and party operatives across the country, provided a detailed, point-by-point defense of Rove's role in the Plame case, saying that he only discussed the situation with Cooper to prevent him from writing something inaccurate.

Appearing on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports," Mehlman cited Rove's previous statement that he had not identified Plame by name.

"The fact is Karl Rove did not leak classified information," Mehlman said. "He did not, according to what we learned this past weekend, reveal the name of anybody. He didn't even the know the name. ... He tried to discourage a reporter from writing a story that was false."

The RNC's aggressive stance in the face of mounting Democratic criticism suggests that Republicans hope the public will simply dismiss the complex controversy as a partisan "food fight," in the words of one Republican senator's chief of staff, who requested anonymity. "They're trying to dilute the matter," the aide said.

Bush was asked about Rove at the end of an Oval Office photo session with the prime minister of Singapore on Tuesday morning, but he did not reply to a shouted question as aides quickly ushered reporters out of the room. Later in the day, a senior administration official said only that "we've lived with the investigation for two years and we're not changing approach or focus now."

But Gergen, who began his career in politics as an assistant to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, questioned the White House strategy.

"They ought to do an about-face and put out the full facts and quell the storm," he said. "Their danger is, if they allow this to keep whipping up in the press, Rove could be wounded. And this president does not want to lose Karl Rove. Rove is his right arm."

It isn't his only Achilles heel. There's also the whole Cheney-Halliburton connection and war crimes and Enron and, and, and. Rove would be good to have during the coming crises because of his polical skills, but I doubt they'll be able to keep him. More than that, the press is finally starting to go after Bush a little and this is spurring them on. One of their own is in jail because of it and it smells like a scandal.

remember the debates ??? What a sham that was

Quote:

remember the debates ??? What a sham that was

I remember them well, including Georgie's earpiece. That'll be one of Rove's tricks. If you get a chance, pick up "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them". It's a great book, but there's a section in their on Rove's use push polls that'll give you idea of what a bastard he really is.

Georgie's earpiece. That'll be one of Rove's tricks.

The debates are completely scripted by both sides before they even start there a complete sham

They're coming apart at the seams. Every major policy decision they've made has a major lie attached to it and was done for political reasons involving Bush's campaign contributors. The US public is starting to wake up to that fact.

For two years, the White House has insisted that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a CIA officer's identity. And President Bush said the leaker would be fired.

I would say They brought out the big guns to defend him tonight on Larry King .Micheal Medved :P :P

Root of the Rove controversy is the war in Iraq
U.S. justification for waging war on Saddam still haunts White House

Larry Downing / Reuters
President Bush speaks to the press following a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove in the background.



• Bush: CIA leak investigation ‘serious’
July 13: President Bush says that he will withhold judgment about top aide Karl Rove’s involvement in leaking the identity of a CIA agent.
MSNBC


David Gregory
Chief White House correspondent


WASHINGTON, DC - President Bush said on Wednesday that he will reserve judgement on Karl Rove’s possible involvement in the leaking of a CIA agent's identity until the special prosecutor’s criminal investigation into the matter is complete.

"This is a serious investigation," Bush said at the end of a meeting with his Cabinet, with Rove, his Deputy Chief of Staff, sitting just behind him. "I will be more than happy to comment on this matter once this investigation is complete,” Bush said.

While the White House seemingly stands by its man, NBC News Chief White House correspondent David Gregory discusses the investigation, how the administration is expected to proceed, and how the root of the scandal is once again the controversial justifications for the war in Iraq.



Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, came to Rove’s defense during a press briefing on Tuesday by saying, “Any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president. They wouldn’t be working here at the White House if they didn’t.” What is the likelihood that Bush would ever actually fire Rove, a close confident and the architect of his re-election campaign?
I think, were Karl Rove to be indicted for any crime, it would be impossible for the president to keep him on. Short of that, I don’t think that he will go anywhere. I think the president will stand behind him.

If you look, the president’s past comments were pretty clear: that anyone who is responsible for leaking classified information, which is a crime, would be fired. Until and unless that’s proven in this case, I don’t think that Karl Rove will go anywhere.

As to the question of whether what Karl Rove did was a smear campaign, or politically sleazy, it’s pretty clear to me that everyone in White House — from the president, to the vice-president, to other officials — shared Rove’s interest in discrediting former ambassador Joseph Wilson who was critical of the administration’s case for going to war in Iraq.

Other than standing by Rove, how much longer can the White House remain silent and dodge this issue?
The president spoke out this morning to say it’s an ongoing investigation and that they should get to the bottom of it. But, beyond that, he’ll try to make it clear that Karl Rove continues to do his job as normal, that it’s business as usual, and that he retains the president’s confidence. It’s pretty clear that’s the case.

The White House has a political problem because they have made statements that are wrong and that are no longer accurate. That’s brought the heat on them.

The president just said today that he “will not prejudge the investigation based on media reports.” So, it doesn’t appear that he is going to comment beyond that.

it's an "at least it's better than the clinton admin" attitude

That's the Republican line, Ocean. They demonized Clinton for eight years and launched investigation after investigation. In the end, all that really stuck was a blow job, but that's enough for them. It also works...listen to the rhetoric spewed by the rightwing media.

Now people like el Polaco are stuck with the Bush administration for two terms.