Let me walk you through it. For the purpose of this diary, forget about the "outing of Plame". Just completely erase it from your mind, as though it never happened, as though her name was never printed by Novak. Then consider the evidence in this story one more time.
Let me work backwards. First Murray Waas said this yesterday:
He (Rove) will also be questioned regarding contacts with other senior administration officials, such as then-deputy National Security advisor Stephen J. Hadley and I. Lewis Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney in the critical week before the publication of columnist Robert Novak's column on July 14, 2003
Now, take yourself back to July 11, 2003. That was the day that Matthew Cooper called Rove to talk about Joe Wilson's claims concerning Niger. The reporter is digging for information about the Niger claims. If the reporter keeps digging (as evidenced by
this article), he could very well uncover something about the Niger forgeries that would make the administration look bad. So, what does the administration do? Blame the messenger, they are experts at it and the media falls for it every time.
Source
As soon as Rove hangs up, he sends the following e-mail to Stephen Hadley, in which he states:
"Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare reform story coming. When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this."
What does this sound like to you? To me, it sounds like he's letting Hadley know that reporters are digging but he successfully deflected the inquiry into Niger, i.e. he "didn't take the bait". The last thing in the world they want is to have anything concerning the Niger forgeries come out. This would make perfect sense, particularly if the administration was complicit in creating them in the first place to help make the case for war.
Meanwhile, Libby is chatting with Miller. What about? WMD's. Forgeries. Niger. Wilson's claims.
Last week, Fitzgerald talks to Miller specifically about her conversations with Libby. Now, Fitz wants to talk to Rove again. And, according to Waas, he needs to review with Rove conversations Rove had with Hadley and Libby during the week they were all chatting to journalists. The boys were definitely undertaking a smear campaign against Wilson in order to hide the facts about the Niger claims that were made. Simple. It was a deflection campaign, pure and simple. I mean, as far as they were concerned, they weren't doing anything wrong. They weren't saying Wilson's statements were false necessarily, they were just trying to deflect attention away from Wilson's claims and toward Wilson himself. It's classic Rove.
The next nugget involves the Subpoena Documents for Judith Miller (Page 6), where it states what was requested of both Cooper and Miller, bolding mine:
On September 13, 2004, the grand jury issued a further
subpoena to Cooper seeking "[a]ny and all documents . . .
[relating to] conversations between Matthew Cooper and official
source(s) prior to July 14, 2003, concerning in any way: former
Ambassador Joseph Wilson; the 2002 trip by former
Ambassador Wilson to Niger; Valerie Wilson Plame, a/k/a
Valerie Wilson, a/k/a Valerie Plame (the wife of former
Ambassador Wilson); and/or any affiliation between Valerie
Wilson Plame and the CIA." An August 2, 2004 subpoena to
Time requested "[a]ll notes, tape recordings, e-mails, or other
documents of Matthew Cooper relating to the July 17, 2003
Time.com article entitled `A War on Wilson?' and the July 21,
2003 Time Magazine article entitled, `A Question of Trust.'"
Cooper and Time again moved to quash the subpoenas, and on
October 7, 2004, the District Court denied the motion. The two
refused to comply with the subpoenas, and on October 13, 2004,
the District Court held that their refusal was without just cause
and held both in contempt.
In the meantime, on August 12 and August 14, grand jury
subpoenas were issued to Judith Miller, seeking documents and
testimony related to conversations between her and a specified
government official "occurring from on or about July 6, 2003,
to on or about July 13, 2003, . . . concerning Valerie Plame
Wilson (whether referred to by name or by description as the
wife of Ambassador Wilson) or concerning Iraqi efforts to
obtain uranium."
You can see clearly from the above legal document that this investigation ISN'T JUST ABOUT PLAME! It's very much (if not just as much) about the Niger uranium issue itself. And guess what? The administration knows this and they are shaking in their boots. Why else would Fitz be so closed mouthed? Why would those people close to the case constantly repeat that whatever he is looking into is "very serious".
IMHO, the "outing of Plame" theme has provided the administration a two-year distraction from the real issue Fitz is investigating. The media is falling for it and so are we. We should be looking at this story from a completely different perspective and, if we do, we should be very excited about what the results could mean...