I’ve quite deliberately avoiding saying anything about the controversy that has been swirling this week around Karl Rove and his apparent involvement, to what degree is unclear, in the outing of the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson as a CIA agent. Ever since this story broke, the DC press corps has been obssessed with finding out the identity of the person who allegedly leaked her name and occupation to reporters, allegedly in an effort to undermine Wilson’s criticisms of the Bush Administration in the run-up to the War in Iraq. The possibility that Karl Rove, the apparent equivalent of Emperor Palpatine in the minds of the left, might be that person has had the media salivating for days.
There are a few things that just don’t add up though.
First, its clear that Karl Rove was the source used by Matt Cooper at Time Magaine, one of the reporters who allegedly had leaked information. This doesn’t tell us, though, who was the source for Judith Miller at the New York Times. Miller remains in jail for refusing to identify her source, meaning that it obviously wasn’t Karl Rove.
Second, from today’s reports of grand jury testimony, it seems that Rove learned of Valerie Palme’s employment at the CIA from another reporter. Therefore, whatever it was that Rove told Cooper was not a leak of classified information.
Finally, there’s this paragraph in the above-linked story from NY Newsday:
In an interview on CNN earlier Thursday before the latest revelation, Wilson kept up his criticism of the White House, saying Rove’s conduct was an “outrageous abuse of power … certainly worthy of frog-marching out of the White House.”
But at the same time, Wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak’s column first identified her. “My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity,” he said.
If Valerie Palme was no longer an undercover operative at the time the story leaked, then what’s the big deal ??????
In reality, though, the truth doesn’t matter. Its summer and Washington is in the middle of a feeding frenzy.
