Jim Lehrer announced he was going to interview Bush this Friday on the News Hour. There is a lot of White House manure to dig through, so here are suggestions for some questions I think he should ask Bush.
"Mr. President when did Karl Rove tell you that he spoke to Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper?" Bush will fall back to the `we have an active investigation going on, so I can't really say' ruse.
Let him bumble around with the English language for a few seconds, and then cut him off.
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"Mr. President are you suggesting that you don't know that Karl Rove talked with Matt Cooper about Valerie Plame-Wilson?" If he says No -
"Mr. President that's public knowledge - in fact Matt Cooper testified before the Special Prosecutor that Rove was his source and wrote about it in Time magazine. Are you not aware of this?"
If he had said yes to the awareness question of Cooper's report in Time, the follow question is, "So coming back to this, when did you know that Karl Rove spoke to Matt Cooper - was it before the Cooper story reporting his Grand Jury testimony in Time this summer?"
If he says he's not going to talk about it say, "Mr. President that sounds like a cover-up. Do you want the American people to think you have something to cover-up? Concerning Karl Rove's involvement in the outing of a covert CIA Agent, the American people want to know what you as the President knew and when you knew it?"
"It's been reported that Karl Rove assured you that he never talked to reporters on the Valerie Plame leak. Is this true?" If he says no, "Well you said you wanted to the leakers to come forward - did you ask Karl Rove to cooperate?"
If the answer is yes to either question, "And Karl Rove assured you he had done this?"
He'll duck, so the follow up question would be, "Will you tell the American people what you knew about Karl Rove's involvement in the outing of a CIA agent and when you knew it after the special prosecutor completes his work?"
"One last point on this issue Mr. President, It is a fact that Karl Rove disclosed classified information regarding Valerie Plame to reporters not authorized to receive it. Karl Rove signed a Nondisclosure Agreement - Executive Order 12958. It governs how federal employees are awarded security clearances in order to obtain access to classified information. It was last updated by you - President George W. Bush on March 25, 2003. In part it says, `I will never divulge classified information to anyone who is not authorized to receive it.' Why haven't you stripped Karl Rove of his security clearance since he violated his obligations under Executive Order 19958?"
Bush will dance around, so the follow up zinger would be, "Mr. President, you came to the White House promising not only to follow the law, but to restore dignity and integrity to the White House. Has the outing of a covert CIA agent caused you to lower or ignore those standards?"
These are some ideas for questioning Bush. I know a thread of questioning can take off in entirely unexpected directions, but I figure this is probably last chance to have an interview with the President.
Anyone else have any other good questions they'd like to ask the President? Anyone have connections with Lehrer?
