We now have
credible reports that he got advance notice of the start of hostilities in Iraq.
This means that we know the following:
- He's been around for YEARS before "Talon News: came into being.
- He is getting his information from VERY senior, because, "When we start bombing" is top level information.
- That it's likely that he had a hard pass
- That he got the scoop on the National Guard memos before everyone else.
- He was in on Valerie Plame's outing.
- That he was called on more often than was warranted by his position.
- That there are folks out there who were in at least as good a position to lob softballs, like that crazy Maryland radio host.
- That he was a male escort/prostitute.
This guy had a patron. That's clear, and he's had one since at least 2002, and this patron has to be very senior, because knowing the hour of an invasion is limited to a very small number of people.
Let's also be clear, by "patron", I mean lover.
(Logical deductions below the fold)
It wasn't Ari Fleischer or Scott McClellan, because neither of them cover the whole period, and I Scott would not have the pull to get this guy that level of access when he was deputy communications director.
It's also unlikely that he'd have knowledge of the invasion timing.
Colin Powel is also off the list. He'd know about the invasion timing, but if he tried to get a friend Whitehouse credentials, it would have leaked, and even then, he didn't have the pull to get it done.
So, who's left who has the clout to get him the pass, and specific knowledge of a highly sensitive military operation?
Here is my first pass:
- George W. Bush
- Dick Cheney
- Don Rumsfeld
- Karl Rove
- Condoleeza Rice
- Laura Bush
Any other names out there?
My head says Karl Rove, since feeding the press bogus documents to discredit them is classic Rove.
He did that to JH "Fortunate Son" Hatfield.
[on edit: changed the title from F***ing to Intercoursing. I wanted to stay with a verb, and "Intercoursing" amuses me (Intercourse the blooming penguin! --Monty Python)]
[On Another Edit: I had forgotten Gannon's involvement in spreading slime against Daschle, which was an explicit Rove objective. It's rove]