Karl Rove-Spin That Top To The Right

I've heard it all now. Talk about perjury. Talk about manipulation. Let's see here, if I've got my facts straight-yes, of course, I do. Karl Rove didn't reveal to Robert Novak, or Judith Miller, or anyone else, the identity of Valerie Plame, the wife of former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson, as being a CIA agent. They revealed this information to Karl Rove. Uh huh. Suuurrre. That would be a bit like me giving an Egyptian archaeologist a tour of the Great Pyramid.

Let's face it here, Rove is a high ranking offical, one of the most trusted such, in the Bush administration, one of the most secretive and close lipped administrations in the history of modern Amrican politics. An administration that, in common wiht all others, would have imediate access to all classified secrets and verifying documents that are availiable and can be reaosnably produced. And we are talking here about a man who, based on a trip to the African nation of Niger, in an Op Ed article disputed the assertions by Bush in his State Of The Union speechthat Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase nuclear materials from that nation. Who further stated that Vice President Cheney knew about and sanctioned the trip, which the administration asserts is false. Why in the hell wouldn't the administration immediately try to find out all there was to know about Joe Wilson, as quickly as possible? They were certainly enraged enough at him. Of course they found out everything there was to know about him, and this bit of information would naturally include the fact that his wife was a mid-level CIA operative, and that in fact it was probably she who recommended him for the trip, which they now insist was done specifically to disprove the assertions making the rounds about Saddams activities in the region.

It seems plausible and understandable that they would deny the Vice-Presidents knowledge and association with Wilson's trip, if he had no involvement, and that they would insist this was a trip made at the behest of mid-level CIA officials. But they didn't stop there, they were determined to exact vengeance on the offending agent by outing her, in the most cowardly way imaginable. I can imagine the conversation went something like this

ROVE: We believe that Wilson was sent to Niger by someone at the CIA, we know he was lying about the Vice-Presidents involvement, we think somebody sent him there specifically to discredit the president, though we can't prove that right now. But we don't know why or how they come ot send Joe Wilson. It has us baffled.

NOVAK: Hey, you know, Wilson's wife is a mid-level CIA agent.

ROVE: Yeah, I've heard that.

NOVAK: Maybe she had something to do with it. Her name isn't Wilson though, it's Plame, Valerie Plame.

ROVE: You don't say. Yeah, Bob, I bet you're right.

So yeah, technically, Rove may not have broke the law. But in the grand scheme of things, he most certinly skirted every ethical standard in the book. And I would be willing to bet the President was kept abreast and totally up to date on every second of this sorry drama, and signed off on it. After all, why was Karl Rove involved in this to begin with? The man is a political consultant, and it seems out of the line of his job description. But maybe it was assummed the damage would be done, and if any suspicions were aroused they could lay it off on somebody like Coli Powell, not outright of course-but hey, Powell was obvviously a pain in the ass for the administration from day one. That is total supposition about Powell, but it is obvious there was sme skullduggery afoot. After all, if everything was all nice and innocent, and no harm was meant, then why was Karl Rove not quoted outright, instead of being referred to as an anonymous source, What would be the need for anonymity?

No, the more I think about it, this brainchild was perfectly hatched in the mind of a deviant though brilliant political consultant-but someting like this could only have been approved by the President. Or the Vice-President. Or some person of a higher authority, as I doubt seriously Rove would do this without approval, on his own. That is just not the way this White House works, and nobody is more cognizant of that fact than Karl Rove.