What were Karl Rove's "political motivations"?

[Che_Nuevara]

Hey folks I've got a simple question, which may or may not have a simple answer.

It seems to be relatively accepted (at least in liberal circles) that Karl Rove did in fact leak the name of the agent to the presses. It also seems to be the general consensus that he did so for "political reasons".

Pardon my ignorance of the facts here, but what exactly would these "reasons" be? I don't really understand how leaking information like this without getting credit would advance his political standing.

If someone could shed some light on this, thanks in advance!

[shraby]

1. A year ago a few du'ers asked the question

"why" would they out a CIA agent who was keeping track of WMDs including the nuclear kind. After a lot of research, here is what we found. You might get some idea of how serious this leak was.

<http://s93118771.onlinehome.us/DU/AMERICANJUDAS.pdf>

[evlbstrd]

2. First, welcome to DU.

As for motivation, there's punishment for Wilson blowing the Yellow Cake uranium excuse. I've also read that the front org Plame was working in was tracking WMD sales, and Cheney may be linked with trafficking weapons and needed to get that problem taken care of. After all, many of these people also brought you the delight that was Iran/Contra and flooded the U.S. with crack in the bargain.

[Che_Nuevara]

6. thanks ev!

I've been reading DU columns since 2001, but I just finally decided that I ought to start posting.

[imenja]

3. it was to promote their false arguments for war

and to discredit someone, Wilson, who was demonstrating that the WH was misleading the public about the so called nuclear threat posed by Saddam.

[punpirate]

4. You seem to confuse "political reasons" for his...

... personal advancement, politically.

That wasn't the purpose. The political purpose was to damage a critic of the administration, first, by suggesting that nepotism was involved (by saying Wilson got the job through his wife) and to call into question his vitae for the mission.

This was about shielding the administration from scrutiny regarding its Iraqi WMD claims by attacking one of the administration's detractors.

Cheers.

[Erika]

5. Karl Rove has been a dirty political operative of the Bush for years

He was behind the dirty tricks to slander McCain and his family and it kept on going from there. He's into power and he gets it through dirty politics and W loves him for it. He's probably the most powerful and dirtiest political operative in our history...empowered by the Bush family.

[wli]

7. there are a few ideas

1. The WMD investigation was headed Cheney-ward.
2. The WMD investigation turned up BFEE/bin Laden connections.
3. The WMD investigation was debunking the Iraq war rationale.

#3 is the most commonly cited. I suspect "all of the above" given the general sleaze level, but there is hard evidence only for #3.

[jobycom]

8. Quick summary

BushCo had given orders to find proof that Hussein was working on WMDs and may have already made a few. Valerie Plame worked on WMDs for the CIA, and knew there were no WMDs in Iraq. Joseph Wilson, her husband, was a former ambassador to Iraq with a history of WMD research in Africa. The CIA was split--some following Bush's orders even though the evidence said otherwise, some trying to tell the truth, even though Bush said otherwise. So the CIA sent Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate one of Bush's claims that they found doubtful--the yellowcake story, or the Niger documents, as some call them. Thse docs claimed that Iraq had tried to buy yellow cake plutonium from Niger. They were widely believed by intel to be fake documents, for some very obvious reasons.

Joe Wilson returned from his trip and publicly stated that the Niger docs were forgeries. Bush did not want to hear this. At the same time, he needed to send a message to the CIA to shut up those who agreed with Wilson--a group which included Plame, Wilson's wife.

So Rove outed Plame, telling reporters that Wilson was too biased to make a good judgement because his wife worked for the CIA and was a critic of Bush's claims. The outing was meant to destroy two critics at once, and also to warn the rest of the CIA what would happen if they didn't play ball.

It was political because Bush wasn't trying to learn the truth--he was simply trying to make his argument look good. Whether he knew the truth, or just didn't care that there were no WMDs, well, that's a different question.

The story should reveal three things about Bush's invasion of Iraq. First, Bush didn't care whether Iraq had WMDs, he was going to invade anyway. The DSM back this up. Second, Bush lied after the invasion when he claimed that he was misled by our intel--the CIA knew, but he smothered their reports. Third, BushCo had no concern for the safety of America, since he was willing to destroy an entire covert network to get his way politically.

That's all.

[Yoda Yada]

10. Or to put it in simple terms...

This was in the front page article of the Los Angeles Times today (July 18, 2005)entitled, "Top Aides Reportedly Set Sights on Wilson"...sorry I can't give a link, but this might give some indication of Rove's motivation.

..."A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove's interest was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House. When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: 'He's a Democrat.' Rove then cited Wilson's campaign donations which leaned toward Democrats, the person familiar with the case said."

I certainly would hope that some Democrats would use this quote particularly when they are being accused of partisan politics. You have a quote here from Rove saying he was aggressively pursuing Wilson because "He's a Democrat." Now, how partisan is that?

[Che_Nuevara]

9. Thanks everyone!

I was missing a few key facts in this case. Makes a lot more sense now.

[opihimoimoi]

11. He seems to be Bushies Fall Guy....if heat comes...its on ROVE

who will then be well taken of after falling on the sword....sorta ..

Then guess who will PARDON ROVE????