What if the Plame leak instigator was not Rove, but Bush himself?

[markses]

Is it possible?

What would be the repercussions?

Would it ever come out?

Completely hypothetical conversation:

(After Amb. Wilson's July revelations)

Bush: Goddamnit, Karl? Who in hell is this asshole anyway? This is gonna hurt us!

Rove:The guy was the expert on Niger, Mr. President. It was a good choice at the time - for Dick and the Agency, anyway.

Bush: Any dirt on the fucker?

Rice (sitting by): Not really. Squeaky clean kinda guy. Cusses a bit, but his resume is just killer.

Bush: C'mon! Does he screw around? Nail little boys? What? Nobody's clean.

Rice: Uh, don't think so. Wife's in the Agency, so you know he's not *cheating*!

Rove: Har Har.

Bush : Yeah, she'd git the fucker with them spy gadgets.



But at this point an idea starts to take form, and Bush knows a few staffers in communications who idolize him. A suggestion here or there, you'd make the President very happy if....

[Cappurr]

1. Nah...

The has Rove written all over it

[Individualist]

3. Agree

Chimpy is just the puppet manipulated by Rove, Wolfowitz, Cheney, etc.

[markses]

7. I'm more or less in agreement

Two things though:

1) Bush is vindictive, as we all know, and has a long memory for real or perceived slights. In this sense, I would not at all be surprised if he attempted to "fuck" somebody he felt had wronged him.

2) The Wilson revelations were the first real body-blow to the Bush Admin shield of invincibility. It was probably perceived as such at the time.

[LittleApple81]

2. Don't think he would be energetic enough to pick up the phone.

[Booberdawg]

4. This story indicates two sources in the White house leaked info

My hunch is Rove and Cheney are the ones who leaked the Plame info

A senior administration official cited in a Washington Post report Sunday said two top White House officials called at least a half-dozen journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife.


MSNBC

[Chomskyite]

5. The question is not what you think happened

. . . but what you can prove. I just don't see this thing gathering much momentum beyond this weekend. No taping system could have caught Rove giving the order.

The staffers will not own up to who told them to do the leaking. They were probably chosen based on their blind loyalty. Anyone who would DO this to begin with would have zero trouble lying to a court or to a prosecutor about whether or not they did it.

And who is going to subpoena the phone records that would prove who did the calling to which journalists when? The Ashcroft Justice Dept? The Mueller FBI? The Republican Senate or House?

No. This story has gained all the momentum it can. It's up to the candidates to keep mentioning it and to do so in such a way that Bush can't survive it.

[markses]

6. Problems there

1) The reports are that (at least) 6 different journalists were CALLED. The White House keeps phone logs. Locating the staffers that made these calls will be fairly easy for the DOJ or an independent prosecutor, if the CIA hasn't already turned over their names with the request to investigate.

2) Whoever the staffers or officials are, they either had clearance themselves, or they didn't have clearance. If they did have clearance, they are in clear violation of the oath that goes with that clearance and the law. if they did not have clearance, they must have received that information from somebody else who does have clearance. they will be leaned on to say who gave them the information. This matter of leaking classified information - even internally - is no small matter, and won't be met with complacence.

So, in short, I think you're wrong about this.

[diplomats]

8. The Dems are already saying they don't trust the DOJ

to investigate (no shit!) and are calling for a special prosecutor. They have to keep this up.

[FauxNewsBlues]

12. The CIA knows alot too

Question for any journalists here.

Bob Novak called up the CIA to ask if they had a problem with him revealing an agents name. They said yes, but he said they weren't forceful enough.

Is it not likely that the other 5 journalists called the CIA too, but were better convinced not to do so?

Therefore the CIA knows all 6 reporters names. Is the CIA under any obligation to not leak those names out? This makes me feel stronger that this was a Tenet leak. Tenet would be aware of the 6 reporters. People in the White House would maybe know the plan, but not all the details. The 6 reporters would have called the CIA, that is how the CIA knows about the other 5 other than Novak.

[wuushew]

9. The similarities to the Nixon tapes is uncanny!

June 15, 1971: Nixon and Kissinger, 10:39 A.M., Oval Office
Conversation #520-4

Kissinger: The reason you have to be so tough, also, Mr. President, is because if this thing flies on the New York Times, they're gonna do the same to you next year. They're just gonna move file cabinets out during the campaign. I mean, these guys, uh -

Nixon: Yeah. They'll have the whole story of the Menu Series.



June 15, 1971: Nixon and Kissinger, 12:45-12:54 P.M., Oval Office
Conversation #520-8; cassette #757

Kissinger: It'd make me look good, so I have no personal, uh. . . . And it will even help this administration a little because it shows that I was committed to negotiations before. But - we just don't have records like this in the bureaucracy.

Nixon: That's why the bureaucracy is furious.

Kissinger: But they can't leak on us like this. . . .

Nixon: Really, why should I ever say anything to the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense after this sort of incident. I'll be Goddamned if I'm ever going to again. . . . I do not trust the bureaucracy. Everything I want secret is going to be kept right here in my own hands.

Kissinger: You're in much better shape. It makes it very important after you leave office - for you to. . . compile your records in such a way that the future historians can work with them.



http://www.ellsberg.net/writing/Nixon_Tapes.htm

[Pepperbelly]

10. Jeff Koopersmith at AMPOL suggests ...

that under the law, Bush could be subject to the death penalty if that is proven and that "assets" were killed as a result of the leak.

[Kool Kitty]

11. I wonder if it came from Poppy Bush, the idea,

I mean. Wasn't he head of the CIA in the seventies? This sounds petulant and childish enough to have come out of his mouth or brain. Such a spiteful, arrogant, dangerous thing to do.

[Walt Starr]

13. My answers to your three questions

Yes.

No, see next answer.

Everybody in the administration would fall on their swords first.