Attention editors! Please proof this short LTE before I send it:

[brainshrub]

I'm about to email this LTE and I'd like to make sure the grammar and punctuation is correct. Thanks-in-advance.

It has been almost two years since Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent working to prevent terrorist attacks in the United States, was outed by someone in the White House. Today we know that the person who ruined her career, put her assets foreign contacts in danger and compromised national security was none other than Karl Rove, senior adviser and chief political strategist to the Bush Administration. The White House has done nothing except lie to the American people about Rove's involvement in the Plame affair.

Mr. Rove's motivation for committing this crime was strictly one of political vengeance. He wanted to punish Mrs. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, for proving that President Bush lied to Congress in his January 2003 State of the Union Speech, where he claimed: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

President Bush should keep his word and fire Karl Rove for putting politics ahead of national security. Knowingly revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative is against the law and an act of treason.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Looks good to me.

:thumbsup:

[larryepke]

2. Looks pretty good.

Maybe I'd change "her assets" to "her foreign contacts".

[brainshrub]

9. Thanks. Updated.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. looks good to me

That's a really good LTE: no extraneous verbiage, just a concise statement of fact closed with a simple statement of your opinion. Nice work!

[Joy Anne]

4. perfect

hit the send button!

[Stephanie]

5. I'd change the punctuation in paragraph two

Mr. Rove's motivation for committing this crime was strictly one of political vengeance. He wanted to punish Mrs. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, for proving that President Bush lied to Congress in his January 2003 State of the Union Speech, where he claimed: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

[brainshrub]

11. Thanks. Done.

:thumbsup:

[RobertSeattle]

6. I'd add put "Bush" in front ot White House

Got to give credit where credit is due...

Good LTTE otherwise - nice and short, factual, and no name calling.

[SpiralHawk]

10. Yes, that's important

The Bush White House.

Make him finally responsible for something in his life and term

[brainshrub]

13. But doesn't that sound a bit cumbersome?

The word "Bush" is already used three times in this LTE. I am concerned that adding another "Bush" will make the paragraph sound cumbersome.

Consider:

Today we know that the person who ruined her career, put her assets foreign contacts in danger and compromised national security was none other than Karl Rove, senior adviser and chief political strategist to the Bush Administration. The Bush White House has done nothing except lie to the American people about Rove's involvement in the Plame affair.

[RobertSeattle]

17. Your call

But when the finally decide to make Rove walk the blank they'll dump it all on Rove and try to make Bush look innocent. Bush=Rove and Rove=Bush. One would not be where they are without the other.

[katinmn]

7. My recommendation

Take out the first colon in the second paragraph. Just make that first line a sentence.

good job!

[JDPriestly]

8. Good job! Short and to the point! Send it ASAP!

[whatever4]

12. They DID use her name, name of her husband, WILSON

I think this point is telling, and should be stressed. He says he didn't "name" her. But to name the name of a womans husband does, INDEED, use her name. There is no other conclusion; to state who she was married to DID out her, effectively.

To give the name of the spouse of an operative, complete with the agency the operative worked for, DID NAME HER. A name legally connected to her.

Rove just used a DIFFERENT name.

But he DID name her.

[brainshrub]

14. I considered putting a paragraph about that.

But then I would have to add two paragraphs, and the attention-span of the average editorial editor is pretty short.

I think the way the LTE is written, it implies exactly what you stated anyways.

[whatever4]

15. Thanks

I understand, you were asking for proofs, not additions :)

I think I should start a thread on the topic. Not enought people are coming to this conclusions, that he DID name her.

He just used a different name.

Legally, that name is attached to her. It identifies her as surely as her own.

So, in effect, he cannot say he didn't name her. False logic.

[WearyOne]

16. sounds OK to me !

[brainshrub]

18. Thanks everyone. It's been sent.

By the way, feel free to use my work as a template for your own LTE.

I sent this to the Asheville Citizen-Times.

[Catshrink]

19. Here's mine -- will someone look it over also?

This administration values loyalty and when Ambassador Wilson said the Whitehouse claims of WMD in Iraq were false, the administration attempted to discredit him. Karl Rove protests that he didn't name the CIA operative but he did in fact give up her identity. Such parsing reminds me of the well-ridiculed phrase "that depends on what the definition of is is." The difference here is a breach of national security not sex between two consenting adults.

Missing are the cries from the Republicans in the House and Senate for President Bush to "come clean to the American people?" Where is their outrage over Bush's lies about WMD in Iraq? Instead we hear talking points attempting to minimize Karl Rove's disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity and the role of her husband.

This behavior is nothing new for Karl Rove. George HW Bush fired Rove for leaking information to Robert Novak in 1992. Rove orchestrated a whispering campaign against John McCain in South Carolina in 2000.

It is time for George W Bush to follow his father's example and fire Rove.