It’s getting curiouser and curiouser and downright confusing in the Plame scandal, dubbed Rovegate by some, with a Time magazine tidbit that contradicts one of Karl Rove’s key contentions:
As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer.
It’s pretty clear by now that this is going to be a fairly long case with the drip-drip-drip of new allegations — some big and some small — that won’t be much fun for the White House. You can read columns and posts galore and your head spins with the various partisan positions, the interpretation of what we know so far in the worst possible light from Rove’s enemies (Democrats) — and the breathtakingly hypocritical spin (from folks who absolutely INSISTED even the slightest aroma of perjury was absolutely unacceptable when it involved the Clinton administration) from Republicans defending a member of their sports team side.
But the bottom line is: we won’t REALLY know the actual FACTS in the case until the Special Prosecutor is done. There are scenarios:
- Rove completely exonerated and it turns out he did nothing wrong or illegal.
- Rove is proven to be lying but somehow escapes punishment in an OJ Simpson kind of way.
- Rove is convicted of something and goes to jail.
- Rove is convicted of something and never goes to jail or is pardoned.
Unless Rove is completely exonerated, this case can’t be helpful to the White House. In the nature of these cases and the way news cycles work, there are bound to be some new big stories coming out of this case.
What will be interesting to watch will be whether this boils down to perjury charges against Rove — but even THAT statement assumes some knowledge of what he told the grand jury and investigators.
So we’re still taking a wait and see — until we see more from the Special Prosecutor. But, based on this report, it increasingly seems like what’s emerging was a classic operation, apparently at high White House levels, to discredit a critic in any way possible. It just so happened that his wife was working for the CIA but the attitude seemed to be: “Whatever!”
BUT THERE ARE OTHER VIEWS ON THIS STORY:
–Tom McGuire has done a ton of stuff on this subject. He asks here about what the media knew.
—Americablog:”Now if Karl told something different to the FBI or the Grand Jury…he’s in big trouble. And this also increases the likelihood that people in the White House knew Plame’s undercover status when they were outing her.”
—Mahablog:”Maybe even less than a clue, but interesting … If so, it is more likely that Karl Rove learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from a journalist.”
—Think Progress:” The key question, if these revelations are true, is why did these administration officials lie so overtly to the special prosecutor? Knowing hard evidence would come out sooner or later against them (through leaks, emails, etc), the White House officials still chose to lie. What could they possibly be trying to hide? Perhaps this wasn’t just a “third-rate smear.â€? “
—Orrin Judd:”Did Ms Palme really arrange this boondoggle for her husband without revealing their relationship?”
—TalkLeft has a large number of links and excerpts related to this story:”My guess: All roads still lead to the White House Iraq Group, Office of Special Plans and Defense Policy Board: Libby, Luti,John Hannah, Stephen Hadley, Robert Joseph, to name a few.”
—Daily Kos:”If this doesn’t get the media swarming again, then, the media will further prove themselves to be a bunch of worthless sycophants.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.