Good new Sidney Blumenthal article on Rove

(One more thing, Ambassador Wilson is going to be on the Today Show Thursday morning - should be interesting. TIVO is taping it for me :-))

Perhaps the most interesting paragraph:

Mehlman's farrago of lies and distortions may be a fair representation of Rove's fears. Is it "the fact" that Rove didn't leak classified information? Plame's identity of course was classified. That is why the CIA referred the matter to the Department of Justice for investigation. But is Mehlman disclosing yet another Rove worry? The prosecutor can indict under any statute, including simply leaking classified information. Is Rove afraid of being indicted under that law, not just the one that makes it a crime to identify Plame? Mehlman raises a further Rove anxiety. No, Rove didn't "reveal the name." But the law doesn't cite that as a felony; it only specifies revealing the "identity" as a crime. It says nothing about a "name." Rove revealed "Joe Wilson's wife." That qualifies as an "identity." By the way, Plame did not go by the name of Plame, but Wilson -- in other words, Mrs. Wilson, or "Joe Wilson's wife." Rove seemed to know that much -- her identity.

Read the rest of this post...

I just learned a new word on Jon Stewart

Who knew?

de·tri·tus (d?-tr?'t?s) pronunciation
n., pl. detritus.

1. Loose fragments or grains that have been worn away from rock.
2.
1. Disintegrated or eroded matter: the detritus of past civilizations.
2. Accumulated material; debris: “Poems, engravings, press releases—he eagerly scrutinizes the detritus of fame” (Carlin Romano).

Read the rest of this post...

Daniel Schorr NPR commentary on Rove and Bush and the lies

You can listen to his commentary online here:

Let me remind you, the underlying issue in the Karl Rove controversy is not a leak, but a war. And how America was misled into that war.... enough is known to surmise that the leaks of Rove and others deputized by him amounted to an angry act of retaliation against someone who had the temerity to challenge the President of the United States when he was striving to find some plausible reason for invading Iraq.

The role of Rove and associates added up to a small incident in very large scandal: the effort to delude America into thinking it faced a threat dire enough to justify a war.

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Man, another bad day for the White House. Read the rest of this post...

Boston Globe Editorial: Show Karl the Ax

Boston Globe Editorial:

IT'S TIME for President Bush to take Karl Rove to the woodshed and show him the ax. And if Bush doesn't get better answers than the public has, he should use the ax....

What we have here is a failure of leadership from Bush. Collapse might be a better word. Bush should have acted immediately after the issue surfaced in July 2003, when Valerie Plame was identified, first by columnist Robert Novak, as a CIA agent....

Novak identified his sources as ''senior administration officials." President Bush should have demanded immediately that the leaker reveal himself and leave the White House staff. Instead there has been a long series of defenses and obfuscations, and now stonewalling.

Read the rest of this post...

NYT editorial: Rove could clear all of this up now

NYT:

Mr. Rove could clear all this up quickly. All he has to do is call a press conference and tell everyone what conversations he had and with whom. While we like government officials who are willing to whisper vital information, we like even more government officials who tell the truth in public.

And by the way, how much taxpayer money has been spent trying to find out what Karl Rove already knows but won't tell us? Read the rest of this post...

The debate is over, Rove leaked classified information

David Corn has an excellent analysis:

By disclosing Valerie Wilson's relationship to the CIA, Rove was passing classified information to a reporter.

"There is little doubt," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, that the employment status of an undercover CIA officer, "is classified information." He notes that the "most basic personnel information of the CIA--the number of personnel, the salaries--is classified. Anything more specific--like the identity of a NOC [an officer working under "nonofficial cover," as was Valerie Wilson] or the numbers and identities of officers working in a particular region of the world--is classified."

To sum up, it does not matter if Rove did not mention Valerie Wilson by name, and it is not true that the information he passed to Cooper was not classified.

A senior administration official during a time of war leaked classified information that jeopardized an undercover agent working on the very issue the war is about, weapons of mass destruction. It is simply despicable that any American would tolerate this kind of treason. Read the rest of this post...

The comparisons to Watergate are chilling

Watch this video from CBS News in 1973.

Then go back and re-read this article I posted earlier today. Perhaps they're going after higher-ups ABOVE Ari Fleischer? He was the press secretary, there aren't too many people above him. Read the rest of this post...

NBC poll has Bush tanking

NBC/Wall Street Journal shows Bush disapproval at 49%, approval at 46%. On Nightly News, Tim Russert was hung up on the fact that Bush has lost serious ground on the issue of whether he was honest and straight-forward. That was always one of Bush's strengths. Not anymore. 41% said he is, but 45% said no.

I'm sure the Karl Rove scandal will be helping with that since the WH is hemorraging credibility. Read the rest of this post...

Uh oh... Rehnquist Hospitalized

From Yahoo:

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ailing with cancer, has been hospitalized with a fever, spurring more retirement speculation about the 33-year veteran of the Supreme Court.

The 80-year-old Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday night and was admitted for observation and tests, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

There was no immediate word on his condition Wednesday afternoon.

President Bush was unaware of Rehnquist's hospitalization until it was publicly announced.
...
It was the second time in less than four months that Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to the hospital. In March, he was brought in with breathing problems. He did not stay overnight then.

Rehnquist has a tracheotomy tube that helps him breathe. He has been treated since October for thyroid cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. The illness led to a five-month absence from the bench, although he continued working at home and at the court during his convalescence.

The chief justice has refused to say if he plans to retire, telling reporters camped outside his house last week: "That's for me to know and you to find out."

Dr. Kenneth Burman, a thyroid specialist at Washington Hospital Center who is not involved in Rehnquist's treatment, said it was not unusual for a cancer patient to check into the hospital with fever. "It could be a minor local infection around the tracheotomy tube," he said.

A more serious possibility, he said, is that the cancer has spread and caused infection. Other possibilities, he said, are pneumonia, allergies to medicine or reaction to chemotherapy.

Two nominations and a Chief Justice appointment sounds like the makings of a nuclear war. Or was it neukular? Read the rest of this post...

Because you can never have enough t-shirts about treason

Shop liberally in the AMERICAblog store and help fund out site:

Read the rest of this post...

Republican members of Congress are avoiding Rove like the plague

Republican Leader Bill Frist doesn’t defend Rove. "It's very interesting that amid these Democratic attacks, though, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Republican leader, told me today that he will not comment. He's not rising to Karl Rove's defense and he's not attacking him either. You would expect the Republican leader to be stepping up and defending the White House at this moment, but Frist says he does not know enough about the grand jury investigation." – [Ed Henry, CNN, July 12, 2005]

House Government Reform Committee Chairman declined to say Rove shouldn’t resign. “House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) said he was reviewing a letter sent to him Monday by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asking for a hearing into the leaks. Davis declined to say if he thinks Rove should resign.” [The Hill, July 13, 2005 ]

Senators Warner and McCain decline to comment. “Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) both declined to comment.” [The Hill, July 13, 2005]

Rep. Steve Buyer says he hasn’t even heard about the case. – “Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind) said that he was in Germany during last week’s congressional recess and had not heard about the case.” [The Hill, July 13, 2005]

Senator Chuck Hagel won’t respond. Several lawmakers said they do not know enough about the facts of the case to respond. Hagel: “That’s up to the president and Karl Rove.” [The Hill, July 13, 2005]

Senator Mike DeWine waits to defend Rove. DeWine: “I think we ought to just wait until all the facts are in….Let’s just wait and see what the special prosecutor does.” [CNN, July 13, 2005]

Even the Conservative Bloggers Turn Against Rove

The Jawa Report: "[I]t's time for Rove to go. Last time I checked we were in a f*cking shooting war and the last thing the Commander-in-Chief needs is a low-life political opportunist in his inner circle."

Decision '08's "teetering" Mark Coffey: "I'm not quite ready to call for his resignation; it's still a little early... but I'm starting to lean that way. Could anything make me lean back? I think it's time for Rove to issue a statement to the press..."

Vodkapundit's Stephen Green: "Even if Rove didn't give out Valerie Plame's name (which appears, for now, to be the case), it also looks like he pointed a pretty bold arrow her way. That kind of leak is breaking the rules, and that's a bad thing. Now, as I understand the law regarding intelligence officers, Karl Rove didn't do anything illegal. But was he right to leak? ... My gut tells me no..." Read the rest of this post...

Ambassador Wilson says Bush should fire Rove

Valerie Plame's husband tells BradBlog in a phone interview today that Rove should be fired.

In other news, it was the top story on CNN's Lou Dobbs again tonight. Read the rest of this post...

Scotty's Still Stonewalling

E&P; has the transcript of today's White House briefing. Seems Scotty was doing a little boo-hooing about being picked on by the media. Maybe you shouldn't have lied to them. Also appears that the WH press corps ain't stopping til they get answers. Some highlights:

Q Scott, you know what, to make a general observation here, in a previous administration, if a press secretary had given the sort of answers you've just given in referring to the fact that everybody who works here enjoys the confidence of the President, Republicans would have hammered them as having a kind of legalistic and sleazy defense. I mean, the reality is that you're parsing words, and you've been doing it for a few days now. So does the President think Karl Rove did something wrong, or doesn't he?

McCLELLAN: No, David, I'm not at all. I told you and the President told you earlier today that we don't want to prejudge the outcome of an ongoing investigation. And I think we've been round and round on this for two days now.

Q Even if it wasn't a crime? You know, there are those who believe that even if Karl Rove was trying to debunk bogus information, as Ken Mehlman suggested yesterday -- perhaps speaking on behalf of the White House -- that when you're dealing with a covert operative, that a senior official of the government should be darn well sure that that person is not undercover, is not covert, before speaking about them in any way, shape, or form. Does the President agree with that or not?

McCLELLAN: Again, we've been round and round on this for a couple of days now. I don't have anything to add to what I've said the previous two days.

Q That's a different question, and it's not round and round --

McCLELLAN: You heard from the President earlier.

Q It has nothing to do with the investigation, Scott, and you know it.

McCLELLAN: You heard from the President earlier today, and the President said he's not --

Q That's a dodge to my question. It has nothing to do with the investigation. Is it appropriate for a senior official to speak about a covert agent in any way, shape, or form without first finding out whether that person is working as a covert officer.

McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, you're wrong. This is all relating to questions about an ongoing investigation, and I've been through this.

Q If I wanted to ask you about an ongoing investigation, I would ask you about the statute, and I'm not doing that.

McCLELLAN: I think we've exhausted discussion on this the last couple of days.

Q You haven't even scratched the surface.

Q It hasn't started.

Oh, no Scott. We have not exhausted the discussion on this the last couple days. It's true. It hasn't even started yet. Read the rest of this post...

Key House Dems. Demand End to Rove's Security Clearance

Not just any Democrats, it's the Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. David Sirota has the details:

Massachusetts Rep. John Tierney (D) just announced that all Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence today sent a letter to President Bush demanding that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's security clearance be revoked in the wake of revelations that he was involved in the leak of a covert CIA operative's name.

Read the rest of this post...

The Rove story keeps getting worse

From Bloomberg

Rove is not the only potential subject for Fitzgerald's probe, which already has resulted in the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to reveal her sources and Time magazine being forced to turn over notes about confidential sources, including Rove, to a grand jury.

People familiar with the inquiry say Fitzgerald also is reviewing testimony by former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, though it is not clear whether the prosecutor is focusing on him or seeking information about higher-ups. Fleischer last night refused to comment.

Other Bush aides who have testified to the grand jury or been questioned by prosecutors include McClellan; Rove; former Deputy Press Secretary Adam Levine; Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff; and Dan Bartlett, a Bush communications adviser.

Bush himself was questioned by Fitzgerald in the Oval Office on June 24, 2004.

`Something Serious'

Randall Eliason, the former chief of the public corruption section of the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, said the fact that Fitzgerald pursued Cooper and Miller so aggressively suggests that he has a legal target in sight. It is rare for a federal prosecutor to seek jail for a reporter who refuses to reveal sources, he said.

``You wouldn't expect him to go to these lengths unless he thought he had something serious to look at,'' Eliason said. ``You don't compel reporters to testify or jail reporters unless you have a pretty good reason. This is not something you do lightly.''

Eliason said Fitzgerald could be pursuing a perjury or obstruction of justice charge rather than a prosecution under the 1982 law that makes it a crime to reveal the name of a covert operative.

Read the rest of this post...

Senator Democratic leaders call for White House to investigate Rove

From Raw Story:

Senate leaders Harry Reid (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wrote a letter to President Bush today calling for an internal investigation into whether his adviser Karl Rove leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent, RAW STORY has learned.

"We urge you to launch an investigation immediately," the senators write. "Anyone who is involved in the leaking of a covert agent's identity, especially for political purposes, does not deserve the privilege of serving as a senior adviser to the President of the United States.

A Justice Department investigation is ongoing, and Bush has said he will await the results of that investigation before taking any further steps. It is unlikely he would agree to an internal inquiry.

In a statement this afternoon, Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) suggested the White House might be obstructing justice, a buzzword that rings of Watergate.

"It looks to me that there may have been some effort by people in the White House to obstruct the investigation," Pelosi said.

Read the rest of this post...

Farmers Are Not Being Hurt By The Estate Tax

One of the tricks Bush likes to pull is cloaking a tax for the super-wealthy as a break for the "little guy." A prime example: the estate tax. Bush is disheartened to think multi-millionaire kids like Paris Hilton could be forced to pay some taxes when mommy and daddy die, so he would love to kill the estate tax. His biggest whopper: we have to give Paris a tax break or it will hurt the family farm. Bush likes to claim they and small businesses are hampered by the estate tax. Attack ads are already on TV. Any Senator who thinks the super-rich should pay some taxes before loading up their children with wealth beyond most of our wildest dreams? Why, they hate farmers.

Uh-uh. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the number of farms on which estate tax is owed has fallen dramatically to about 300 farms. It also hinted that the number of farms which owed taxes after using liquid assets (ie. the farm is fine and they had enough money to pay off any taxes), well that could be zero. Zip. Nada. Damn, I hate facts.

According to the New York Times,

President Bush, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association have asserted that the estate tax is destroying family farms. None, however, have cited a case of a farm lost to estate taxes, although in June 2001 Mr. Bush said he had talked to such farmers....

Michael J. Graetz, a professor at Yale Law School who was a tax policy official in the administration of President George Bush, said repeal was primarily a benefit to people with large estates held in stocks and other securities, not to farmers....

And just to screw over the farmers Bush is pretending to help:

Because of details in the repeal bill, it would also force a large majority of farms and small businesses to pay larger tax bills in the future, said John Buckley, the chief tax lawyer for Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Buckley criticized farm and small-business groups as not explaining to their members that the repeal as written would cost them money while primarily benefiting those with vast fortunes.

Read the rest of this post...

Rehnquist in the hospital

I had a feeling he wasn't doing well, and that, I think, is why the rumors swirled last Friday about him imminently stepping down. The timing was odd, so soon after O'Connor (why not just step down at the same time, rather than one week later), unless he HAD to step down be he was very very ill. Read the rest of this post...

Pelosi, Miller and Boxer demand Rove's resignation

Pelosi is even talking about a larger White House conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case.

"Whether it's a criminal offense or not, it's an act against the national security of the United States. No person who has divulged the name of a CIA covert operative should be in the employ of the U.S. government. It's up to the special prosecutor to find out whether that person should also be indicted in addition to being fired. So yes, I think he should be fired," Pelosi said.

Read the rest of this post...

Why doesn't George Bush just ASK Karl Rove if he did it?

What is this BS about Bush now waiting for the investigation to complete so that he doesn't have to judge Rove based on media reports. For a president who doesn't read the media, that shouldn't be a problem. Simply pick up the phone, call Karl, and get his butt in your office and ASK him if he was the leaker or not.

Either Bush has done this and knows Rove is the leaker, and in which case Bush lied when he said he would fire the leaker - not to mention, that would mean Bush has been tolerating a security risk, and possible criminal, on his staff for two years now - or Bush has not called Rove in and asked him, which begs the question why not?

Why won't Bush just ask Rove if he did it? Read the rest of this post...

Ken Who?

Dave is right. We need to ignore people like Ken Mehlman in any future discussion of the Rove scandal. The White House would like nothing more than for us to get mad at Ken for saying something stupid, then making Mehlman the debate and not Rove.

Operation Ignore Ken is now in play. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Take it away Read the rest of this post...

Ken Mehlman does some creative editing with Joe Wilson's words

Sit down and brace yourselves because this is a real shocker. Ken Mehlman left out a few critical words in his hachet job to the GOP loyals on Joe Wilson yesterday when he rallied 'round his dear friend Rove. Josh Marshall has it all in case anyone out there cares about the facts. Ken just can't miss an opportunity smear someone, can he? Read the rest of this post...

Bush sticks to the Rove talking points,

Think Progress has the transcript. Now, Bush can't talk during an investigation either. Could last year, can't this year.

Update: AP claims Bush was supposed to show support for Rove, but didn't, hmmm:

Bush's statement was a surprise for some White House advisers and senior Republicans who had expected the president to deliver a vote of confidence for Rove, his deputy chief of staff. Two Bush advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was poised to speak for himself at the Cabinet meeting, said shortly before his remarks that the president intended to signal his support of Rove - without prejudging the merits of the case - during that picture-taking session. Indeed, they said, he was prepared to do so a day earlier but the question was not posed in the question-and-answer session Tuesday.

Read the rest of this post...

"Man on dog" Santorum back at it

Apparently believing that Pennsylvania is chock full of Christian wingnuts, Ricky yesterday held firm to his previous remarks about Boston and the pedophile scandal. Maybe this is for fundraising purposes though because I can't see this winning many votes in PA. The good news is that Santorum is struggling in recent polls and he's going to be running against a well known big name from the Democrats in 2006. I may not agree with Casey on everything but compared to Santorum, it's not even close. Time to kiss those presidential dreams goodbye.

Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.

''The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people's behavior," Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.

''If you have a world view that I'm describing [about Boston] . . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way," Santorum said.

Read the rest of this post...

Bush and Rove: It's All About Loyalty

The New York Times has a lenghty feature on Bush and Rove and they spin it exactly the way Bush would love: it's all about loyalty.

The NYT reminds us that Bush usually rewards people who screw up. It also goes into detail on the State of the Union address that contained those 16 words -- also known as a lie -- and details how Wilson was absolutely right and Bush ultimately had to retract those words. What the NYT doesn't do is point out how this well-known incident means RNC head Mehlman is LYING when he says Rove was just trying to keep a bum article from being printed (as if Rove were just a freelance factchecker for the MSM). No, Rove was trying to smear Joe Wilson for telling the truth and he did it by attacking Joe Wilson's wife and endangering national security.

And why is this about loyalty to a political hack?

Why won't Bush be loyal to his country first and his cronies second?

Why won't Bush be loyal to the truth?

Why won't Bush be loyal to his word? Read the rest of this post...

Lots of updates on the London bombings

Here Read the rest of this post...

Another day, another t-shirt

Our latest in Rove-wear, available at the AMERICAblog shop:

Read the rest of this post...

Today Show Let Newt Defend Rove

So, Newt was on the Today Show with the most convoluted defense of Karl Rove. Those GOPers are all on their talking points now....Karl didn't say her name....Wilson was the liar....Karl is being smeared.

Give me a break. First, so much of what Newtie said was wrong. And, I know you'll find this hard to believe, but Katie didn't really have the info. to challenge him. Also, there was, of course, NO ONE representing the other side.

I want to see some of the former CIA agents debate Newt Gingrich and Ken Mehlman. Let them explain to agents why Karl's actions are okay. If you want to know what an agent thinks, check out former CIA agent Larry Johnson's post over at the TPM Cafe:

The misinformation being spread in the media about the Plame affair is alarming and damaging to the longterm security interests of the United States. Republicans' talking points are trying to savage Joe Wilson and, by implication, his wife, Valerie Plame as liars. That is the truly big lie.

For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Novak's column was not an isolated attack. It was in fact part of a coordinated, orchestrated smear that we now know includes at least Karl Rove.

Powerful considering the source. But, don't be surprised if the GOP starts bashing the CIA agents who put their lives on the line.

Love the GOP, Rove is the victim even though he put the lives of Plame and other agents in danger....and further undermined national security. Read the rest of this post...

The latest Gitmo CYA

Perhaps the Bush team learned how to cover their asses by watching the US military in action because no one there ever seems to be responsible for anything either. The latest is that despite countless abuses at Gitmo, General Bantz J. Craddock sees no reason to discipline Major General Geoffrey Miller even though investigators recommended that he be reprimanded. Let me guess...a low ranking schmuck was responsible for everything and they're going to throw the book at 'em. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Everybody take a deep breath. Ahhhhhh. I'm off to bed. Another killer day. Read the rest of this post...

Former head of the RNC: "Worse than Watergate"

Uh oh. He said it in 2003 about the Plame case, but just as relevant today. Read the rest of this post...