By now most of you have read Newsweek report about the telephone conversation between Rove and Cooper. It isn't the smoking gun first advertised, but it is interesting and it's getting hotter around Rove's feet. I never thought it was going to be a smoking gun - why would Rove release Cooper if it was? But it is very interesting if you look at the forest and not the trees . I'll explain:
Remember the endless pre-war barrage of on-message statements of weapons of mass destruction and mushroom cloud references? Well, by July 2003 it was becoming obvious that there was a problem. There were no weapons of mass destruction and the Niger documents had just been debunked. The Niger documents were an excuse that could be utilized as a rationale for war if weapons weren't found. All the Administration had to say was that they reasonably relied upon the evidence of intelligence agencies, and if they erred they did so in good faith. The problem was that relying on the Niger documents was not made in good faith in light of Wilson's work as became obvious when Wilson published his op-ed piece in the New York Times on July 6, 2003. He had told the CIA that the documents were fraudulent and yet the President continued to use these documents as the basis for justifying the war.
The phone call to Cooper was not an attack to "out" a CIA agent, although it did so, but it was an attack against Wilson for the purposes of protecting the rationale for the war. By July 2003 the reasons for going to war were turning out to be false and I suspect there was fear in the Bush Administration that this would become more apparent as time went on, which coincided with the 2004 election campaign. The real fear was that Wilson's story would stick and the "fixing" of the facts around the policy might become known during the election campaign. So, Rove attacked Wilson by claiming that his wife, who worked for the CIA, initiated the process to hire Wilson to conduct the search and therefore his opinion was not to be given sufficient weight. I'm not sure I understand the rationale, but that was all Rove had.
The bottom line is that irrespective as to whether Rove intended to "out" a CIA agent or not, the real story should be why attack Wilson to begin with. He attacked him to distract the media from the real story, i.e. the Niger documents were false and so were the other reasons for invading Iraq just before the 2004 campaign season got off the ground.
The question remains who drafted the Niger documents. When that story is told there will be resignations and jail time, no questions asked.