Turdblossom Special
If it comes to pass that Karl Rove is indicted, or even if he loses his security clearance (which he damned well should) I would hope that someone in Washington has the guts to smash this fellatory daydream in Mark Helperin’s face and twist it like a grapefruit until he screams for mercy. I’m not sure if “The Note” think this is funny or if they seriously believe that Karl Rove was just an innocent bystander in the Plame outing, but either way their little fantasy is ludicrous.
Pretending that they are writing in the future on a day when Rove comes to the podium and finally speaks, they write Rove’s speech for him:
“I have a statement to make before taking your questions.”
“Now that the special counsel has informed me that I will not be charged in his investigation, I thought I should come to this podium and tell you the straight Texas truth about my role in this case.”
“In short, my counsel advises me that there is no controlling legal authority that says that any of my activities violated any law.”
“Just kidding. Lighten up, Plante.”
“When news reports began regarding allegations that Valerie Wilson’s name was improperly released to the media, I was asked by several colleagues here at the White House if I had played a role in illegally releasing the name of Mrs. Wilson. I said at the time that I had not. That was my best recollection at the time I was asked.”
“Subsequently, three things occurred. One, the special counsel’s investigation began, and both he and the President — as well as the White House counsel — asked those of us working in the government not to speak publicly about the case in any way.”
“Two, my colleague and friend Scott McClellan on several occasions repeated what I had in good faith told him — that I had not played any part in breaking the law and disclosing her name. As a result, he mislead you more often than my lawyer, Luskin, which is really something when you think about it.”
“Third, after an e-mail was belatedly discovered through the normal search process at the White House, my recollection was refreshed and I recalled that I did have one brief conversation with one reporter in which I mentioned Mrs. Wilson’s role in her husband’s trip to Niger.”
“Because of the first development — the absolute barrier to speaking about the case — I was unable to deal in a timely manner with the second two developments in a public way. This had the unfortunate effect of bringing into question the credibility of the White House and my own public credibility. For that, I am sorry.”
There was, of course, no absolute barrier about talking about the case. Indeed, his lawyer discussed it constantly both on backround and in the open. This is nonsense.
Furthermore, Karl Rove has a photographic memory. He did not forget speaking to Cooper and he did not forget speaking to Libby about Novak writing a story about “Wilson’s wife.” Sure, Karl could say this, but nobody would believe it except his little cheerleading squad at The Note. The partisan shills might dutifully repeat it, but they wouldn’t believe it either. This is because it’s completely unbelievable.
Karl has cultivated quite a mystique over the years. He is considered by one and all, on both the right and the left, to be a Machiavellian genius, or as ex-Democrat and media maven Mark McKinnon, his most devoted sycophant, puts it, “a chess master who always sees 12 steps ahead.” He worked very hard to create that image and playing the dizzy blond won’t work now.
Why, everyone knows that Bush’s Brain’s tactical brilliance is legendary. It’s obvious that Boy Genius’s political skills are unparalleled. He has been lauded for his special brand of slash and burn politics since his earliest days, doing dirty tricks in the college Republicans. He doesn’t play hardball politics, he plays beanball politics. He cannot play innocent. Ever.
In this case, regardless of any illegality, his tactics were no different than usual — low, partisan and ruthlessly over the top. Here is what he reportedly said to the grand jury:
President Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, told the FBI in an interview last October that he circulated and discussed damaging information regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame with others in the White House, outside political consultants, and journalists, according to a government official and an attorney familiar with the ongoing special counsel’s investigation of the matter.
But Rove also adamantly insisted to the FBI that he was not the administration official who leaked the information that Plame was a covert CIA operative to conservative columnist Robert Novak last July. Rather, Rove insisted, he had only circulated information about Plame after it had appeared in Novak’s column. He also told the FBI, the same sources said, that circulating the information was a legitimate means to counter what he claimed was politically motivated criticism of the Bush administration by Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Rove and other White House officials described to the FBI what sources characterized as an aggressive campaign to discredit Wilson through the leaking and disseminating of derogatory information regarding him and his wife to the press, utilizing proxies such as conservative interest groups and the Republican National Committee to achieve those ends, and distributing talking points to allies of the administration on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Rove is said to have named at least six other administration officials who were involved in the effort to discredit Wilson.
This is what the man does and it’s how he got his creature George W. Bush in the white house. From whisper campaigns about Ann Richards being a lesbian to siccing the FBI on Jim Hightower, he honed his skills as an assassin for more than 20 years in Texas. He’s proud of it.
The LA Times reported last summer that Rove was just as obsessed as Libby and for trivial reasons by comparison:
Prosecutors investigating whether White House officials illegally leaked the identity of Wilson’s wife, a CIA officer who had worked undercover, have been told that Bush’s top political strategist, Karl Rove, and I. Lewis Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, were especially intent on undercutting Wilson’s credibility, according to a person familiar with the inquiry.
While lower-level White House staff members typically handle most contacts with the media, Rove and Libby began personally communicating with reporters about Wilson, prosecutors were told.
A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove’s interest was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House. When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove responded: “He’s a Democrat.”
Karl Rove was in the middle of a ruthless, partisan campaign to “discredit” Joe Wilson with leaks. He, as “Official A,” went to Libby and told him that Robert Novak was going to write a column “about Wilson’s wife.” He told Chris Matthews that Wilson’s wife was “fair game.”
Yet The Note wants us to actually swallow this utter bullshit that the brilliant, masterful, political genius Karl Rove “forgot” his conversation with Matt Cooper in which he spilled the beans about Wilson’s wife. In a court of law, perhaps Pat Fitzgerald would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rove lied about that. In the court of public opinion, it is as ridiculous as the idea that OJ didn’t do it.
Perhaps Karl can spend the rest of his tenure in the White House looking for the real leakers.
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