...The more I think that she was already a very public figure who had no problem with posing for photos for major magazines, had no problem publically discussing her job, and who really wasn’t all the “in” before she was supposedly “outed” by Novak. Which pretty much means that this is a non-issue that had been way overblown, played out, and is largely irrelevant. I have to admit that I intentionally avoind reading too much about it because the more I hear about Valerie Plame the more I think that she was already a very public figure…
I feel pretty much the same way--which is why I haven’t said anything. But it seemed like everywhere I looked this morning, I couldn’t get away from the story.
I just wish that Rove had been forthcoming about his involvement. “Look, I answered a question about her, as far as I was aware she wasn’t a covert agent at the time, and both her identity and her profession were pretty well known in social circles.
“All I said was, ‘That’s what I heard.’ In context and given the scope of the conversation, I can’t see how that’s being equated with leaking classified information.
“Hell, people, Sandy Berger steals classified documents, stuffs them down is freakin’ pants, and destroys them, and you guys don’t even care. What the hell, people?”
Then we could move on and everyone would be happy. Instead, he indulged in a little Clinton-speak ("I did not name names with that woman") and makes himself look bad.
The stuff in the corner basically convinced me that Rove did nothing illegal. First, they have that quote from Joe Wilson saying, “My wife wasn’t a covert agent when Novak outed her.” Forget for a second that if she wasn’t covert then she couldn’t be outed. Then another post argues that Novak didn’t know she’d ever been a covert agent, and says he wouldn’t have printed her name if he’d known. It was an article printed days later in the Nation that suggested she may have been covert at some point in the past, and the source for that “suggestion” was from Joe Wilson.
Since the law requires that you out a covert agent, or one who has been covert in the last five years, in order to hurt the agent, the law wasn’t broken. Rove probably didn’t even know she was covert, and if he did, he didn’t tell Novak. And Wilson didn’t break the law because he didn’t mean to harm his wife.
The only way to read Rove’s actions as illegal is to argue that he did know she was covert, and he outed her as an overt (is that the right word?) analyst in order to make sure people found out she had been covert. That’s rather tenuous for my tastes, but this is Rove, the Prince of Darkness, so I would bet the lefties will argue he’s very capable of being that devious. Hell, maybe he is.
Anyway, once again, the cover-up to crime ratio is high. You’d think if Rove were so damn smart he’d realize what a mistake he was making. I think he should be fired, but it’s not critical, and Bush won’t do it anyway. Especially not before O’Conner’s replacement is named, they can’t show any weakness until the Senate vote is tallied.
Well, as Mickey Kaus points out, the one acting the weirdest in all this is the NY Times. They keep asking questions they could answer themselves. They avoid printing the most salient parts of an extremely short email (parts which would cause their accusations against Rove to collapse). Their reporter has been given permission by her source to reveal the source, but would prefer to remain at summer camp, er in jail. Because if she reveals her source, it seems as if the carefully-constructed case against Karl collapses.
Hey, just because I do puns doesn’t mean I can’t also do alliteration, right?
Well, now we know that Rove didn’t even voluteer that Plame was an analyst. Novak called him, and said, “Hey, Karl, I heard Joe Wilson’s wife is a CIA analyst.” Rove replied, “I heard that, too.”
That’s it. Four words, acknowledging that Plame was a CIA analyst, which was already public knowledge.
There is now, officially, absolutely nothing to this story. Except to find out who Judith Miller’s source really was. I’m betting it was Wilson himself.
That Wilson quote ("she wasn’t a covert agent") actually does make sense when you see it in the interview. A very inarticulate way of saying “she ceased to be a covert agent the day Novak outed her”, but you can see what he meant. You can watch it here should be on the right sidebar. About 8 or 9 minutes in. (Wolf Blitzer begins the interview asking “What do you make of the effort to smear you right now?” Real hardball questions.)
I can’t say I’ve followed this closely at all. But I will say this: OMG! Joe Wilson SHOOK SADDAM’S HAND! OMFG!11111!!!1! Maybe instead of opposing the war he should’ve opposed GIVING HIM WMDS WHEN HE SHOOK HIS HAND! BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!
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The more I hear about Valerie Plame…
...The more I think that she was already a very public figure who had no problem with posing for photos for major magazines, had no problem publically discussing her job, and who really wasn’t all the “in” before she was supposedly “outed” by Novak. Which pretty much means that this is a non-issue that had been way overblown, played out, and is largely irrelevant. I have to admit that I intentionally avoind reading too much about it because the more I hear about Valerie Plame the more I think that she was already a very public figure…
I feel pretty much the same way--which is why I haven’t said anything. But it seemed like everywhere I looked this morning, I couldn’t get away from the story.
I just wish that Rove had been forthcoming about his involvement. “Look, I answered a question about her, as far as I was aware she wasn’t a covert agent at the time, and both her identity and her profession were pretty well known in social circles.
“All I said was, ‘That’s what I heard.’ In context and given the scope of the conversation, I can’t see how that’s being equated with leaking classified information.
“Hell, people, Sandy Berger steals classified documents, stuffs them down is freakin’ pants, and destroys them, and you guys don’t even care. What the hell, people?”
Then we could move on and everyone would be happy. Instead, he indulged in a little Clinton-speak ("I did not name names with that woman") and makes himself look bad.
The stuff in the corner basically convinced me that Rove did nothing illegal. First, they have that quote from Joe Wilson saying, “My wife wasn’t a covert agent when Novak outed her.” Forget for a second that if she wasn’t covert then she couldn’t be outed. Then another post argues that Novak didn’t know she’d ever been a covert agent, and says he wouldn’t have printed her name if he’d known. It was an article printed days later in the Nation that suggested she may have been covert at some point in the past, and the source for that “suggestion” was from Joe Wilson.
Since the law requires that you out a covert agent, or one who has been covert in the last five years, in order to hurt the agent, the law wasn’t broken. Rove probably didn’t even know she was covert, and if he did, he didn’t tell Novak. And Wilson didn’t break the law because he didn’t mean to harm his wife.
The only way to read Rove’s actions as illegal is to argue that he did know she was covert, and he outed her as an overt (is that the right word?) analyst in order to make sure people found out she had been covert. That’s rather tenuous for my tastes, but this is Rove, the Prince of Darkness, so I would bet the lefties will argue he’s very capable of being that devious. Hell, maybe he is.
Anyway, once again, the cover-up to crime ratio is high. You’d think if Rove were so damn smart he’d realize what a mistake he was making. I think he should be fired, but it’s not critical, and Bush won’t do it anyway. Especially not before O’Conner’s replacement is named, they can’t show any weakness until the Senate vote is tallied.
Z: Your response to my comment is 100% on-the-mark, a quite a bit witty, too.
Well, as Mickey Kaus points out, the one acting the weirdest in all this is the NY Times. They keep asking questions they could answer themselves. They avoid printing the most salient parts of an extremely short email (parts which would cause their accusations against Rove to collapse). Their reporter has been given permission by her source to reveal the source, but would prefer to remain at summer camp, er in jail. Because if she reveals her source, it seems as if the carefully-constructed case against Karl collapses.
Hey, just because I do puns doesn’t mean I can’t also do alliteration, right?
Jerry, thank you. I couldn’t have done it without your original comment to spur me on.
Nathan, that was a nifty little bit of alliteration.
Well, now we know that Rove didn’t even voluteer that Plame was an analyst. Novak called him, and said, “Hey, Karl, I heard Joe Wilson’s wife is a CIA analyst.” Rove replied, “I heard that, too.”
That’s it. Four words, acknowledging that Plame was a CIA analyst, which was already public knowledge.
There is now, officially, absolutely nothing to this story. Except to find out who Judith Miller’s source really was. I’m betting it was Wilson himself.
That Wilson quote ("she wasn’t a covert agent") actually does make sense when you see it in the interview. A very inarticulate way of saying “she ceased to be a covert agent the day Novak outed her”, but you can see what he meant. You can watch it here should be on the right sidebar. About 8 or 9 minutes in. (Wolf Blitzer begins the interview asking “What do you make of the effort to smear you right now?” Real hardball questions.)
I can’t say I’ve followed this closely at all. But I will say this: OMG! Joe Wilson SHOOK SADDAM’S HAND! OMFG!11111!!!1! Maybe instead of opposing the war he should’ve opposed GIVING HIM WMDS WHEN HE SHOOK HIS HAND! BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!