"Fallout from Rove's involvement" in PlameGate "yet to be fully measured"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Who told Bush what in leak case, and when was he told?
Fallout from Rove's involvement yet to be fully measured

Richard W. Stevenson, New York Times

Sunday, July 24, 2005

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2005%2F07%2F24%2FMNGCEDSPUC1.DTL

Washington -- His former secretary of state, most of his closest aides and a parade of other senior officials have testified to a grand jury. His political strategist has emerged as a central figure in the case, as has his vice president's chief of staff. His spokesman has taken a pounding for making statements about the matter that now appear not to be accurate.

For all that, it is still not clear what the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity will mean for President Bush. So far the disclosures about the involvement of Karl Rove, among others, have not exacted any substantial political price from the administration. And nobody has suggested that the investigation directly implicates the president. Yet Bush has yet to address some uncomfortable questions that he may not be able to evade indefinitely.

For starters, did Bush know in the fall of 2003, when he was telling the public that no one wanted to get to the bottom of the case more than he did, that Rove, his longtime strategist, senior adviser and alter ego; and Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, had touched on the CIA officer's identity in conversations with journalists before the officer's name became public? If not, when did they tell him, and what would the delay say in particular about his relationship with Rove, whose career and Bush's have been intertwined for decades?

Then there is the broader issue of whether Bush was aware of any effort by his aides to use the CIA officer's identity to undermine the standing of her husband, a former diplomat who had publicly accused the administration of twisting its prewar intelligence about Iraq's nuclear program. For the last several weeks, Bush and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, have declined to address the leak in any substantive way, citing the continuing federal criminal investigation.

[Inland]

1. Poll numbers plummeting, so far, without indictments

Gozales not nominated, Iraq war support dwindling, every other pres. intiative dead in water--maybe the news about Rove wasn't the sole cause, but it was A cause.

[Toots]

2. Now we are talking... It's time to get information from the "Big Kahona"

What did bush" know and when did he learn it?