Tell me I am crazy, but I think that I figured it out...Wilson/Novak/Bush

[thom1102]

Try this one on for size... Wilson bad mouths the administration publically on July 6th, Fleischer, his notice already given and his exit date set, gets called into a meeting with Rove: "Thanks for doing such a good job for us Ari, we appreciate all your hard work. BTW, there's one more thing we'd like you to do for us. Bob Novak is going to write a smear piece on this Wilson guy who has been saying bad things about us. We want you to provide him with the name of his wife, who is a career CIA operative." "Duh, OK KKKarl. Whatever you want, dah."

Scott McClellan on Monday: The president has set high standards, the highest of standards, for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.

Now they can deny that anyone in the Administration had anything to do with the leak, since Rove is an advisor to the President and therefore not officially part of the administration, it is technically true. Semantics saves the day again, and the White House never TECHNICALLY lied. But that puts Ari in quite the pickle now, doesn't it. BTW the Novak article was printed on July 14th, and Fleischer's last day? July 14th. Hmmmm....

[w13rd0]

1. Forward this to reporters....

...see if someone can ask if Ari's phone logs and correspondence have been archived, or purged. Same thing for others that have left the administration...

[demnan]

2. Same day - that is quite a coincidence

You might be on to something.

[legin]

3. Interesting n/t

.

[grytpype]

4. A plausable scenerio.

But there are some important gaps you'll need to fill in.

There were two WH leakers, who was Leaker 2?

How did Rove know Plame was CIA?

[SoCalDem]

15. Mary Matalin (Cheney advisor) left about the same time too

She could have been one:).. and what a wonderful way to stick it to Carville too, to have his WIFE be part of that little dirty trick..

We know they are fond of irony, even if they could not give a dictionary definition or spell it..

What a devious thing that would be, to con her into rteleasing that information..

[TacticalPeek]

16. I may be a misreader of people I only see on tv,

but I think this is beyond Mary's pale. In fact, I would consider her a candidate for the WP source who said there were six, and for 'revenge'. But I think Andy Card is more likely the WP source, and I assume Mary being 'outside' now eliminates her as an SAO.

[LevChernyi]

5. I was thinking about Ari..

I wanted to see how his resignation matched up with Novak's story because I thought the same thing. Thanks for doing the leg work.

[Beetwasher]

6. Interesting

The date "coincidence" is an excellent catch!

[ShaneGR]

7. Would a Press Secretary be considered a Senior Official?

Just wondering. You make a good point.

[dkamin]

10. no

haven't reporters already identified Karl Rove as one of the callers, off the record?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

8. fleischer is in this somewhere

and now when they say the leaker is not in the administration they are technically correct but the question should be was the leaker in the administration at the time of the leak. maybe the other 6 reporters also wrote stories on fleischer's leaving. novak said he got this leak while interviewing someone.

[soothsayer]

9. or Ari quit because he knew this woud break

and wanted no part of it.

[NicoleM]

17. highly unlikely

Ari knows no shame. Remember, you can't spell liar without Ari. :)

[thom1102]

18. He announced his resignation in May...

All of this broke in July, so I think that would be more clairvoyance than I can credit Rove, or Fleischer or anyone else in that administration.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. Very interesting! Good piece of research!

[Selwynn]

12. Brilliant!

I think this makes the most sense of anything so far, and this is also why when I have said that I don't believe anything serious will come of this, I believe I will be proven right. :(

[caledesi]

13. You are not crazy Thom....even on FR, they were talking about

it being Ari and were scrambling like crazy to find a "timeline" as to when he left etc.

I even posted this when this story first broke, bec I was trolling on FR and they were "fingering" Rove and Ari.

[TacticalPeek]

14. DUer Snazzy snagged the resign/article date tie-in a few days ago.

And if aWol and McClellan et al. are carefully using the 'in the administration' v WH line in a strict, scripted way, they could be flirting with conspiracy to obstruct, etc.

Coverups can be so tricky to get right.

A frog countermarch is not a pretty thing to watch.