Anyone else just catch the CNN story on Rove

[Citizen Jane]

Nice little conversation between Blitzer and Kurtz. At least Kurtz slapped down Wolf's idea that Plame wasn't outed by name. He also predicted that the story will take on "Hurricane Dennis like proportions."

I'll believe it when I see it. Sigh.

[senseandsensibility]

1. Howie said that?

He's the ultimate corporate whore. Wow.

[Citizen Jane]

2. My thoughts exactly.

Howie was actually kind of schooling Wolf (doin' his usual BFEE defense dance) about the seriousness of the charges. He also made a big deal about it being before the Novak story (sweet!).

I thought he was going to weasel when he said that the question of whether the act was intentional was iffy because of Cooper's being the one who brought up Plame at the "end of the conversation with Rove," but then he balanced the other direction with the discussion of the timeline re: Novak AND the "semantics" of Joe Wilson's wife vs. Valerie Plame. That's why I wondered if anyone else caught it, because it was surprising for Kurtz not to just fall in line with Wolfie.

[senseandsensibility]

11. Welcome to DU

Thanks for the details!:hi:

[Bumblebee]

3. He did say that

and he did say the story was at first more difficult to construe and report but the published e-mails have made it easy. Blitzer first ran the clip of Gregory pestering Scottie but then actually said something stupid about the e-mail, like "the question is, is KR in the e-mail Karl Rove?" To Kurtz's credit, he did say "of course, it's Karl Rove!" But here is the spin that Kurtz brought up and we will hear more of, no doubt: it was not Rove who called Cooper but the other way around, and "Wilson's wife" just came up at the end of the conversation -- so it does not square well with the account that Rove was going out of his way -- calling reporters -- to spread this info. Stay tuned :)

[mandomom]

6. Classic messaging

is to carry on a conversation then "happen" to drop a little info in an off-hand manner at the end. It carries the real message of the conversation after all, such as the importance of the phrase the follows "but" in a conversation. "Her hair is pretty BUT it's dirty". The speakers real point is the dirty hair. That's the takeaway of the message.

[senseandsensibility]

12. Welcome to DU!

Thanks for letting me know what Kurtz said. He seems to have undergone some kind of personality transplant.:shrug: Wonder how long it will last.

[Totally Committed]

4. For CNN to have any credibility...

they have to fire Novak, imo. N O W . . .

TC

[mandomom]

7. Hasn't he been dumped

from most of his TV hosting gigs? Maybe the station managers fear the slime of the story.

[faithnotgreed]

5. yeah.. but didnt dennis greatly weaken right as it was about to hit?

it does sound good though if this thing will hit and hit with a force

[KoKo]

8. Thanks all of you for reporting on this....so many times we don't get the

details from DU posters. For those of us who missed it it's interesting to see how Howie and Wolfie handled it.

:-)'s

[skip fox]

9. I believe it now. The number of calls and confirmations indicates clear

deliberation and repetition. Therefore, nothing was done "unknowingly".

Rove is probably guilty of heading an illegal conspiracy AND identifying Plame to one or more reporters. Maybe perjury an dobstruction as well.

If Rove was the only primary source, however, that means he released Matt Cooper from his confidentiality agreement but he did not Judith Miller from hers. The logical reason is that his leak to her included a much more obvious case of illegal activity. Rove's hope, then, is that such a case will never be known. But with the national attention on the Plame matter and, especially, a tenacious and objective prosecutor tracking him down, Rove has little hope (especially with the fact that he had to have done this SIX times and arranged for at least one other to support his story THREE times).

But if Rove was one of at least two or more sources (which would explain why Cooper's released him but Miller's did not release hers), then it's far worse for him since he probably coordinated the entire leak with both planning and foresight (two elements which again indicate that he KNOWINGLY leaked Plame's identity).

Any administrative official originally realizing the Wilson-Plame-CIA link would immediately realize it could discredit Wilson, but much more importantly he would have known who to take the information to, the master of such discreditations (among so much else), Karl Rove. Rove would then insure that the leaks did not overlap and that at least FEW other officials could be counted upon who would readily confirm the information of the original sources (perhaps each having different details or a different slant to make it sound realistic and not a set-up), since he could not insure who the reporter would call for a confirmation.

[gemlake]

10. The segment with Woodward was a joke

I caught Wolf's segment with Woodward and Bernstein on CNN XM Radio. I was optimistic after hearing the promo about the Rove case and the Watergate journalists. Then Woodward spent the entire time bashing the prosecutor for forcing reporters to reveal their sources, saying that Watergate would not have been possible without confidential sources. Um, Bob--the issue is not about Cooper, its about the bush administration committing treason by revealing the identity of a CIA agent! We need journalists to expose the crimes and dirty tricks, not to be a conduit for those crimes. It made me so angry I had to turn it off. This is exactly how the Repubs want the story to be covered.

[demgrrrll]

13. I heard that interview too. I thought he sounded like he was reading a

script.