The Plame Grenade

[dweller]

y Matthew Rothschild
July 12, 2005

The scandal over the outing of Valerie Plame has been a hand grenade rolling down
the halls of the White House for the last two years.

Now, ever so slowly, the grenade is stopping outside of Karl Rove's door, and
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is slowly pulling the pin.

Rove will not get away unscathed this time.

When Rove's attorney acknowledged to Newsweek that Rove had talked about this story
with Matt Cooper of Time, even before Robert Novak published his hatchet job, Rove was
left with little place to hide.

Even though Rove and his attorney appear to be doing some sort of Clintonesque dance
about the naming of Plame--it depends on what the definition of "name" is--Rove finds
himself in legal harm's way.

He's also in political harm"s way, as is his boss.

This is the scandal that could take down the Bush Administration.

http://progressive.org/?q=mag_wx071205

dp

[AlabamaYankee]

1. I'm convinced that Rove is merely the mouthpiece

As several bloggers have commented, Rove would have no reason to know who Ms. Plame was, unless "Need to Know" compartmentalization of classified material has completely evaporated.

I'm gonna trust Fitzgerald on this one. He's been working quietly for a long time and (I hope) won't present anything until he has the package seamlessly tied up with a nice big bow.

[skip fox]

2. Me too, I think Fitzgerald will nail the people who did it

Rove Will Go Down In Plames

Cooper's e-mail to his boss was just a boiled down summary of what Rove actually said, no matter how much Fox tries to make it seem as though it was the total substance. And then they conveniently forget to remember there were at least 5 more contacts and 3 confirmations, facts which suggest there will be one or more indictments for Rove and at least one more for another "high administration official," resulting to a loss of Republican credibility of being the party or morals and personal responsibility.

We know there were 6 calls because 6 contacts were made (Miller, Cooper, Novak among them). We know 3 contacts confirmed their stories with another "high administration official."

Therefore

1.) 1 man (named Rove by Cooper) made all 6 calls (which reduces the contention of "unknowingly" providing Plame's identity laughable). But he would have had to make sure that there were a few other "high administration officials" ready and willing to confirm his story, which strongly suggests coordination. Did Rove mastermind this portion before "unknowingly" releasing Plame's identity 6 times? Was this coordination "unknowing" as well? What does "knowing" mean? Repeated deliberate acts and coordinating with others for future support suggest a strong and clear intentions. It has knowledgeable design written all over it.

or,

2.) more than 1 person (Rove and at least one other) made the 6 calls. (The fact that one source released Cooper from his agreement of confidentiality but one source did not release Miller suggest at least 2 sources.) Rove would have more to coordinate! To establish guidelines like: No source should call another's contact, Pitch the information off hand, not as the main subject, Make the contact think the source is trying to do him or her a favor ("Don't go too far out on this Wilson thing, I don't want you burnt."), etc. AND Rove would have had to field a group of officials to support the sources stories.

I say Rove coordinated because it is obvious he did so since anyone in the administration in possession of the Plame-Wilson-CIA link would have gone straight to the world master of deceitful politics, and now we know Rove was at least one of the leakers.


So, in the first case we have at least 2 indictments for Rove (exposing and conspiring to expose) and (perhaps) 1 or more indictments for others (confirming and condoning the exposure while furthering it).

But in the second case we have at least 2 for Rove (same as above, but more evidence of conspiracy) and 1 or more clearcut indictments for others (both leakers and confirmers for exposure).

And then we haven't even begun to ask the question of how Rove got the information. (Doesn't leaking the information to him also constitute a crime?) Did Plame give information to officials as one report suggested? Why did Ashbery recluse himself? Did Rove have the proper clearance prior to becoming Deputy Chief of Staff to have seen the material? Or were other federal laws broken to the effect that classified information was used for political purposes? Etc.

I think the great thing we have going for us on this case is Patrick Fitzgerald. By all accounts a fine prosecutor.