Seen at Fark.

"If Newsweek's report is accurate, Karl Rove is more morally repugnant and more anti-American than Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, after all, has no affiliation with, and therefore no presumed loyalty to, the United States. Rove, on the other hand, is a US citizen and, as deputy White House chief of staff, a high-ranking official of the US government sworn to uphold and defend our nation, its laws and its interests. Yet he sold out America just to get even with Joe Wilson."

- Ted Rall.

'Outside the presidential rally, one protester made reference to the [Valerie Plame] case, holding a sign that read: "Jail Karl Rove."'

Rove's "I Did Not Inhale" defense
It depends on what the meaning of "knowingly" is.

In a huge admission to Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, [Turd Blossom lawyer Robert] Luskin confessed that, well, yes, Rove did talk to Cooper. It is a huge admission in a case where Rove and Luskin have never, before Friday, felt compelled to say a word about Rove's contact with Cooper or anyone else involved in the case.

- Lawrence O'Donnell.

The internets are still pretty quiet about the whole Rove leak thing. What a surprise.


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"Apparently the disaster that Bush has created in Iraq is now the justification for having created it."

Rewritin' history

[Bunnypants] thinks he shows courage when he insists we stay the course and accept the near-daily slaughter of our troops as vital to our nation’s future.

Forget the fact that the reason we supposedly went to war - to find and confiscate weapons of mass destruction - is not valid. Forget the fact Bush has made colossal mistakes in securing and rebuilding Iraq. Forget the fact that Bush, who in 1999 as Texas governor said, "Victory means exit strategy and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is," has no exit strategy.

What galls us most of all in Bush’s June 28 speech in Fort Bragg is that our wartime leader sounded less like a competent problem-solver and more like a broken record. His vapid remarks echoed what he has said repeatedly over the past two years; in fact, if you listen to his speech along with his two previous prime-time addresses on Iraq, you could scarcely tell them apart.

There were no terrorists in Iraq plotting attacks on America before your March 2003 invasion. So it’s hardly reassuring that you are spending hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars to draw jihadists from all over the region to Iraq - only to use their arrival to justify the war in the first place.

– from an editorial in the Portsmouth Herald.


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No more vague platitudes

What was surprising to me is how badly George Bush misdiagnosed the reasons for the plummeting numbers. He seemed to think the numbers are down because Americans have forgotten Sept. 11 -- five separate mentions -- or because we've lost our will to take a stand or because we have become complacent about terrorism.

No. The numbers are down because the American people have come to believe that the administration has no plan for dealing with either Iraq specifically or terrorism generally -- beyond "staying the course."

- William Raspberry.


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Happy 4th of July!


Good Grief

Mayo Shattuck III, CEO of Constellation Energy, had heard the name-related jokes more than once during his 50 years. But probably not at a televised event. And probably not from the president of the United States.

"I want to thank the president and CEO of Constellation Energy, Mayo Shattuck," President Bush said at a June 22 event at a Maryland nuclear power plant owned by Shattuck's company. "That's a pretty cool first name, isn't it? Mayo. Pass the mayo!"

Hyuck!


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Rove: I did not leak the name of that woman, Miss Plame
"One of the two lawyers representing a witness sympathetic to the White House told NEWSWEEK that there was growing "concern" in the White House that the prosecutor is interested in Rove."

More Rovian goodness at Swing State Project.


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"The president was never honorable in this regard"

To the extent that George Bush had retained the slightest shred of dignity through the whole ugly Iraq imbroglio, it was found in his refusal to fully embrace the biggest of the Big Lies told by his aides: the claim that Saddam Hussein had played a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

By suggesting that the invasion and occupation of Iraq should be seen as part of a legitimate and necessary response to September 11, as he clearly did on Tuesday, Bush made a deliberate break with reality - not so complete a break, perhaps, as that of Cheney and the wing-nut faction of the administration, but a break all the same.

The president's speech was written and delivered with the intent of deceiving the American people into believing things that were never true.

- from a Capital Times editorial.


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Rove: no inhaling! None!
The disclosure raised new questions about Rove and the precise role of the White House in the apparent national security breach...

Karl Rove, one of President Bush's closest advisers, spoke with a Time magazine reporter days before the name of a CIA operative surfaced in the media, but did not leak the confidential information, a lawyer for Rove said Saturday in a new admission in the case.

Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003, during the week before published reports revealed the identity of operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic and former U.S. envoy Joseph Wilson.

Some suspect that the White House leaked her name in retaliation for a July 6, 2003, article in the New York Times written by Wilson accusing the administration of using bogus intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.

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Lawrence O'Donnell: It's Rove...

I revealed in yesterday's taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine's emails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source. I have known this for months but didn't want to say it at a time that would risk me getting dragged into the grand jury.

McLaughlin is seen in some markets on Friday night, so some websites have picked it up, including Drudge, but I don't expect it to have much impact because McLaughlin is not considered a news show and it will be pre-empted in the big markets on Sunday because of tennis.

Since I revealed the big scoop, I have had it reconfirmed by yet another highly authoritative source. Too many people know this. It should break wide open this week. I know Newsweek is working on an 'It's Rove!' story and will probably break it tomorrow.

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Rove: yeah, but I never inhaled!

Karl Rove spoke with Time magazine's Matthew Cooper during a critical week in July 2003 when Cooper was reporting on a public critic of the Bush administration who was also the husband of a CIA operative, his lawyer confirmed yesterday.

Rove is identified in Cooper's notes from that time period, which Time turned over Friday to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald under court order. Fitzgerald is investigating whether senior administration officials leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to reporters in July 2003 as retaliation after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to justify a war with Iraq.

Rove's lawyer said Rove never identified Plame to Cooper in those conversations.

Uh-huh. Sure. Just a coincidence. I bet the identity of an undercover CIA agent was common knowledge, anyway. Right.

"Karl Rove! You're Bush's brain? I would've expected a much smaller man." - Triumph the insult comic dog.

Fair game

Now the story may be about to take another turn. The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House. Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But in an interview with NEWSWEEK, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article. It is unclear, however, what passed between Cooper and Rove.

Oh please oh please oh please
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Oh please oh please oh please...


Pic from dkos.
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Rove fired from Bush Sr's '92 campaign over leak to verminous traitor Bob Novak
A little background info on Karl Rove:

Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 re-election campaign of Bush Sr. for allegedly leaking a negative story about Bush loyalist/fundraiser Robert Mosbacher to Bob Novak. Novak's piece described a meeting organized by then-Senator Phil Gramm at which Mosbacher was relieved of his duties as state campaign manager because "the president's re-election effort in Texas has been a bust." Rove was fired after Mosbacher fingered him as Novak's source.

Mosbacher says: "I said Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go." The motive in question? Mosbacher had given Rove only a quarter of the $1 million spent on direct mail contracts for the 92 campaign; Rove, who in 1988 had the entire direct mail contract, therefore had an axe to grind with Mosbacher. Novak's column stated: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher."

Although Novak and Rove continue to deny Rove was the source of the leak, Mosbacher recently stated "I still believe he did it."

(Sources: "Karl and Bob: a leaky history," Houston Chronicle, Nov. 7, 2003, ; "Genius," Texas Monthly, March 2003, p. 82; "Why Are These Men Laughing," Esquire, January 2003)

- from newmoonpuppyhead, at Fark.


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Frog-marching Rove down Yellowcake Lane
Headline stolen from Eschaton!

From TalkLeft:

[T]he investigation has moved from one involving the identity of the White House official to one involving perjury - i.e., a cover-up. The source may have been questioned in front of the grand jury and lied.

Knowing the identity of the source is not enough for a perjury conviction. There must be two witnesses to the perjurious statement. Telephone records would not be enough, because they only provide the number dialed, not the identity of the person speaking. Matthew Cooper's and Judith Miller's e-mails and notes may provide that corroboration.

And from RimJob's Circlejerk Central:

FOX discussed this a couple days ago, every one, including Mara Liasson said no crime had been committed, not even by Novak.

Rove WASN't involved! even Novak said it wasn't anyone in the Bush Administration that leaked her name. O'Donnall is a lying sack of guano!

If Rove were guilty of a crime then a whole string of democrats will be facing similar charges

"O'Donnall is a lying sack of guano!" That's all we need to know. I don't have to read the article.

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Oh please oh please oh please...
MSNBC analyst says Cooper documents reveal Karl Rove as source in Plame case

Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, claimed to know that name - and it is, according to him, top White House mastermind Karl Rove.

Here is the transcript of O'Donnell's remarks:

"What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury, the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

"And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of... for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

Other panelists then joined in discussing whether, if true, this would suggest a perjury rap for Rove, if he told the grand jury he did not leak to Cooper.

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Actual Friday cat blogging
Mwwwaaa! It's like three days of Saturday this weekend, as we have today and Monday off for the 4th of July holiday! Wheeeeee!

I'd sit and think - then think some more...
Bush promises to be "deliberate and thorough," devisive in process of nominating either personal pet Alberto Gonzales or neocon fave Ted Olson to the newly vacant Supreme Court position.


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No bounce for Bunnypants
Bush job approval unchanged by 9/11 war speech.

President Bush’s televised address to the nation produced no noticeable bounce in his approval numbers, with his job approval rating slipping a point from a week ago, to 43%, in the latest Zogby International poll. And, in a sign of continuing polarization, more than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.

"Karl. what are we gonna do now? Karl? Karl??"
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Ruh-roh
Look for things to get reeeeeeal ugly, as Sandra Day O'Connor anoounces she's retiring. Say goodbye to abortion rights and hello to the new Inquisition.


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Friday cat blogging
I'm trying Blogger's new image-embedding thingie today. I hope it works - all I know is that I can't see the pics I'm posting.

The kittens, before I brought them inside.
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Very cool
The day's front pages, at Newseum.


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