OK, so Rove was Cooper's source. Who was Rove's source?

[Bleacher Creature]

While there's still no guarantee that Rove is going down (though it's looking better and better), this thing goes deeper. What our side needs to do is put aside our unbridled hatred of Rove -- if it's possible -- and focus on the big picture. Remember, if the person who told Rove about Plame was Cheney or even Bolton, and it can be proven, this could get REALLY good.

[goclark]

1. Real Good

[Flammable Materials]

2. My money is on Cheney.

Watch him have a "devastating physical malady", though, as the hounds get closer and closer to his trail. Something that will render him incapable of serving prison time, and something that the right-wing noise machine will use to paint liberals as heartless bastards for wanting to imprison a sick, weak man.

[Lefty48197]

16. Gotta be Cheney

He's too f*cking stupid to understand just how wrong this was.

[damntexdem]

But how could this be known for sure ...

unless Rove rats to get a deal with the prosecutor? And how likely is that?

[napi21]

3. I think there's a link to both Bolton & Cheney.

Bolton worked very closely with Cheney on the WMD researh. I believe this is the reason the WH is refusing to release the info Bolton requested, to Biden. I'd bet you'll find Valerie's name on that list which is the original source, to Bolton, to Cheney, to Rove, to reporters.

[Coastie for Truth]

15. That's the most likely

Cheney - Rove - Bolton.

[FreedomAngel82]

19. So what would

happen if Rove, Cheney and Bolton are all confirmed sources of this? Would they all go to jail?

[Coastie for Truth]

22. No.

They would just send you and me and skinner and lithos and John Conyers and Howard Dean to jail. That's how these guys operate.

[whistle]

4. As adviser to the President KKKarl Rove has complete authority

....and access to ALL SECRET information that is available to the president, including files and names of any persons working for the U.S. government, secret CIA agents included. What a presidential adviser does not have authority to do is use such information as a means to intimidate, bully or take revenge against any U.S. government employee. That is abuse of power.

So it doesn't matter how Rove got this information, because he can get it any time he wishes. It's what he does with it that matters. Furthering a political agenda is misuse, using secret information for intimidation of government employees is misuse, so is covering up lies and reprisals against persons who disagree with the administration's position.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

5. Bolton, Cheyney, Feith and Libby

Four of the backstabbinest (yes! new word! lol) people whoever darkened D.C.'s corridors. Nixon's Kids.

And with any luck, there'll be a whole slew of weasel underlings willing to rat them out in order to save their hides from prison.

[rurallib]

12. Concur

Sounds like a popoff Bolton would do and then KKKarl runs with it.

[damntexdem]

20. Why include Feith on the list?

He did rat on a conspiracy, which Bolton and Cheney certainly haven't done yet. And he apparently was truly upset about the conspiracy, while Bolton and Cheney are likely central conspirators.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

23. Then file him under the weasel underlings.

If he was upset about the conspiracy, will he say what he knows? Name who he knows?

I named him because when you hear about Libby and Cheyney, Feith's name is often in the same breath. Add to that him being OSP in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, and here is a strong chance he either is in on it, or has knowledge of who is. He's Rumsfeld deputy, almost a parallel of what Libby is to Cheyney, as well as having been Perle's counsel when he was in the DoD. A total neocon-PNAC toadie.

Let's quote Tommy Franks just as an aside:

"Tommy Franks, who led the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, has been much quoted as calling Feith “the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth,” apparently for ideas he proposed to Franks and his planners."

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050509fa_fact

[BillZBubb]

6. Rove had the highest level security clearance.

So, whoever gave him the information didn't break any laws. It was whoever made the information public that broke the law. I hope it was Rove, or that he lied to the grand jury to cover for who did it.

[leesa]

11. Are you sure? He was just an advisor then.

[glaucon]

7. According to Hunter at Kos

It's just possible, by the slimmest of margins, that Rove got the info from Novak's article.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/10/33753/9134

The slimebag will certainly claim that, anyways.

Here's to hoping he frogwalks just the same!

Cheers!

[mrdmk]

21. Your time line is wrong, besides Karl Rove has a top secret

clearance (scary is it not) and he cannot use that position of responsibility to political ends, which we all know that is what he is best at. I think that is how the law is going to get him.

Here is a link to David Corn who's story started this whole investigation
http://www.davidcorn.com/

[interupt]

8. Would it matter?

If Rove leaked to a journalist, it would come back to Rove unless he spilled the beans.

[glaucon]

9. If Rove got it from Novak's article, it means Plame was already "outed"

which absolves his slimey ass.

But not necessarily from perjury or political destruction.

[glaucon]

14. and if that's the case, the REAL question becomes:

Who was NOVAK's source???

[leesa]

10. If Rove did not have clearance to know this, then someone like

Cheney would be the true leaker.

[interupt]

13. Of course...saying that would get him shot in the throat...N/T

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Well, isn't the other leaker tied to Cheney?

[damntexdem]

18. No matter who it was ... it could be really good.

Someone senior had to be the ultimate source who knew the info. I can't imagine that someone junior was used as a go-between to tell Rove. So, someone senior almost-certainly told Rove. Of course, the question is whether that can ever be known -- e.g., if Rove were going down, would he rat to get a deal?

[DODI]

24. Eric Alterman wrote in his "Altercation" blog at MSNBC that

possibly Rove found out about Plame through Judith Miller. Thought that was an interesting spin.