In his latest
post over at Huffington, Rep. Conyers responds to the Newsweek article and does a masterful job of framing the Rove issue:
Cast in its best light, the Bush Administration's Karl Rove defense boils down to this: Rove . . . was merely spreading false information about [a CIA] operative in an effort to smear her husband.
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Remember during the 2000 Presidential campaign when the Republican mantra was that President Bush was going to "restore honesty and dignity to the White House?" How's that going? When Vice-President Cheney accepted his party's nomination for Vice-President in 2000, he boldly declared: "They will offer more lectures, and legalisms, and carefully worded denials. We offer another way -- a better way -- and a stiff dose of truth." Is that what we are getting?
Conyers continues, shaming the press corps for its failure to cover the Bush Administration's hypocrisy:
In the 90's, there was a media uproar when literally accurate, but misleading, statements were made about a private sexual affair. Today, when such statements are made out a life and death matter -- the decision to go to war -- for a Nixonian purpose -- to smear truth-telling critics -- there is barely a peep from the press corps. In the days since Rove's role became public, the White House press corps has yet to pose a question to the White House press secretary about it. Not a word about the disgusting hypocrisy of an Administration that came to office promising to "change the tone" in Washington now attacking a critic through his spouse.
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According to an earlier Newsweek report, Karl Rove was telling reporters that Wilson's wife was "fair game." Many reporters accepted this repulsive notion. One has to wonder whether their complicity in this smear then has rendered asking the important questions about it today "off-limits."
Short version: The Bush White House promised honor and dignity, but has delivered hypocrisy, smears, and legalistic excuses for moral wrongs. And the press corps is letting the Administration get away with it.
But it's even worse than Conyers suggests:
To borrow the first President Bush's words about people who expose undercover CIA agents, his son's Administration includes at least two individuals who are "the most insidious of traitors." And cast in its best light, the Bush Administration's defense of Karl Rove boils down to this: Rove was merely using leaks by those traitors for political gain.