Day on Torts
What did the President know above Karl Rove’s role in the outing of Valerie Plame and when did he know it?
Rove was suspected early on but did not admit that he was a source. Instead, Rove played cute. Reuters says that “Rove has carefully chosen his words when questioned about the leak. ‘I didn’t know her name. I didn’t leak her name,’ he told CNN last year when asked if he had had anything to do with it.”
But Reuters reports that “the Newsweek article said an e-mail Cooper sent his bureau chief after briefly talking with Rove stated that ‘it was, KR said, Wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd (weapons of mass destruction) issues who authorized the trip.'” OK, I understand now, he didn’t link her name, he only leaked that the wife of Joe Wilson worked for the agency. I am sure that he thought Joe Wilson had dozens of wives and that our enemies would never be able to identify which one worked for the CIA.
If the reports are true and Karl Rove is in fact the source of the leak concerning Plame, he needs to go to jail and in the meantime lose his job. Can you imagine the outrage that would have been expressed by the Republican Party if James Carville had outed a CIA agent during the Clinton Administration?
More important, however, is the response of the President. What did he know about the leak? Did Rove ever tell him that he was a source? Did the President ever ask? If the President was told, did he encourage Rove to come forward? If not why not?
Remember what the President said at the time the leaks became public: “If there’s a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is,” Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. “If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.”
This will also serve as a test for Senator Frist. Will he call for Rove to speak out about this matter?
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars, of resources have been spent investigating this matter. The “liberal” media stood by its word and kept its source confidential while one of the most powerful people in the Nation stood silent at best and lied to the public at worst.
If these allegations are true, President Bush needs to demonstrate some of that strong moral character he likes to talk about and banish Karl Rove from the White House and his Rolodex.
It is time for Karl Rove to stand before the press and tell the truth. His press conference needs to followed by one in which the President answers the questions set forth above.