Today's Washington Post article
Rove's Time in Limbo Near End in CIA Leak Case provides an interesting insight into the inner workings of Karl Rove's mind.
A creepy journey, for sure, but one well deconstructed if we are to prevent Karl Rove from continuing to use his access to George Bush and the power of the Presidency to impose his private political agenda upon the lives of the American people and, by doing so, seriously compromise our national security.
If we have waged war in Iraq for political reasons, it is because politics have replaced policy in the Bush White House.
The man responsible for that substitution is Karl Rove.
From the
Washington Post article by VandeHei -
What Fitzgerald is looking at, in terms of indicting Rove -
Fitzgerald appears to have focused most of his attention on one key question, according to a source close to Rove, who based this assessment on questions asked of the presidential adviser: Did Rove testify falsely in February 2004 when he failed to disclose that he told Time's Cooper about Plame's CIA role seven months earlier?
Rove's defense in front of the grand jury was boiler plate GOP plausible deniability ala Ollie North and the Iran/Contra Affair -
In testimony offered in subsequent grand jury appearances, Rove essentially argued that he did not recall the conversation with Cooper until a few months after he first testified, when his attorney found a 2003 e-mail Rove had written to then-deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.
Oops!
Why did Karl Rove let an e-mail remain discoverable, if he knew he was lying? Because he really didn't think the matter would ever be investigated, I believe. He thought he'd uncover Plame and so ruin Wilson, in the same way he's done this deed a thousand times in his climb to the top, riding all the way up on Bush's back. He never thought Wilson wouldn't simply be destroyed quietly and go away forever, like all the others have done in the past.
That's the arrogance of power. That's the drawback to sculpting reality on a daily basis. That's the vulnerability in operating in a closed loop feedback system where the only news you hear is the news that fits your own agenda. I don't think it ever occurred to Karl Rove that anyone would have the energy to sort through all the myriad forms of corruption coming out of his office and find an internal e-mail. He thought he could act with impunity because he's always gotten away with political schenanigans like this in the past without punishment, penalty, or harm.
Karl Rove didn't count on men like Joseph Wilson and Patrick Fitzgerald. Men like Wilson and Fitzgerald are not part of Rove's small world.
What was in this e-mail?
In the e-mail, Rove mentioned that he had discussed Wilson with Cooper.
Nailed. So Rove went back to the grand jury.
The e-mail prompted Rove to tell the grand jury that he apparently did discuss Plame -- though not by name -- with Cooper, according to the source close to Rove.
Thus was born all that cable news talk show positioning about "Wilson's wife." Rove thought he could parse himself out of a lie to a grand jury. It was his version of a Clinton moment -- his own special definition of what "is" is.
Then Karl fell out of his Clinton defense tactic back into his Ollie North strategy with a little bit of Scooter Libby's excuse thrown in for flavoring. In short, he forgot all about the e-mail. Why? Well, he is a busy, busy man.
Karl Rove, with lawyer Robert Luskin, right, and spokesman Mark Corallo in April, said he had forgotten his conversation with reporter Matthew Cooper.
More excuses follow. Not only is Rove a busy, busy man, who didn't mention Plame by name, and forgot about an e-mail, he would have been simply stupid to lie, knowing that the town was talking and he'd get caught if he went ahead and lied.
In his most recent testimony, Rove said he would have been foolish to lie when he first testified and explained how he had been tipped before his first grand jury appearance that Time reporters were openly speculating about his conversation with Cooper. The details of the "tip" are in dispute, however. According to the source close to Rove, his message to the prosecutor was, in essence: Why would he risk lying when he could safely assume that his discussion of Plame with Cooper would soon get out?
To end his defense, Rove points out that if he was really going after Plame, he'd have leaked to a reporter he knew better than Cooper - he'd have divulged the identity of a CIA operative to a sure thing.
His defense is that when he does something evil, he does it right.
No fiddle faddling around with a newbie. He'd use a tried and true leaker.
Moreover, he has testified, if he really wanted to damage Wilson in the summer of 2003, he would have sought out the many other reporters he knew better and trusted more than Cooper. He argued that he hardly knew Cooper, who had recently started on the White House beat -- one reason the conversation slipped his mind, the source close to Rove said.
You know what I think? I think Rove cherry-picked Cooper because he was a newbie. I think he counted on Cooper being the new kid on the block, eager for access, panting to please, hungry for an inside track. I think Rove assessed Cooper as a little naive and willing to do what it took to cozy up to the President's righthand man.
Rove's defense, in his inimitable Roviness, is eminently Rovian.
He has taken the truth, and distorted it into the facsimile of a story that may or may not be true, and within the ensuing chaos and confusion, Rove stands still and in power and his agenda continues, unabated.
This is his hope. This is his standard operating procedure.
If nothing else, the man is consistent.