Rove was the source of the Plame leak... so it appears

Give it up. I'm hetero.

JustWonders wrote:

Could it just possibly be that he's [Rove's] just sitting back and laughing at these reports in the Post, Bloomberg, etc., knowing all the while that he has incontrovertible evidence to the contrary?

Why, sure it's possible.

Just like the quarterback who tells the coach at halftime that he threw four interceptions in the first quarter on purpose, just so that he can demoralize the other team when he goes out and beats them in the second half.

Bloomberg is reporting that Rove and Libby both gave testimony to the grand jury that flatly conflicts with the testimony given by those they said they talked to.

We now know that the top secret memo most consistent with the talking points that Rove and Libby told reporters was seen in the hands of then-press secretary Ari Fleischer in the days before the leak occurred. And that Fleischer told the grand jury he never saw it.

And Steve Clemons has verified that John Bolton was one of Judith Miller's regular sources on WMD issues, and that MSNBC stands by its story that Bolton gave testimony to the grand jury about the State Department memo in question. Bolton, you may recall, has previously been identified to have been involved in the Niger uranium claims that Wilson's trip helped disprove ...

This is, to use the most calm and soothing phrase possible in such circumstances, extremely f*cking bad for the administration. It shows the broad outlines not just of multiple perjury charges, but indeed of linked conspiracy charges against a number of administration officials.

We know that there are members of the administration familiar with the attack against Plame/Wilson who have been talking to prosecutors. At least, we can assume they've been telling prosecutors at least as much as they've been telling the press, or we'd have a whole passel of reporters likely joining Judith Miller in her Fortress of Suddenly Discovered Integrity. The fact that other administration officials have been giving their side of the story perhaps poses the most serious risk of all for Rove and others -- because it wouldn't be very difficult, for people in the right places, to shatter what little plausible deniability Rove, Libby, Fleischer, and others have been clinging to.

That branch may already be broken, in fact. I don't think it's possible to exaggerate the amount of legal danger here for Rove in particular, and Fleischer and Libby as well. The special counsel is likely trying to solidify how, exactly, Rove learned the information in the memo, since it's looking increasingly implausible that reporters told him, and looking more probable that Rove and Novak "agreed" on a storyline after the fact (reports are now saying that Rove's and Novak's stories don't quite match, too, further raising the stakes.) Note, however, that it may not matter whether the grand jury can fully identify how he came by the information. Rove has now been identified as confirming the classified info to both Novak and Cooper; that in and of itself represents a likely crime under the Espionage Act.

Wilson outed her, along with Corn, to make the case against Bush.

Nobody knew she was a NOC until Corn and Wilson said so--in their effort to drag the WH into a scandal. Otherwise, it would only be known she was an EMPLOYEE of the CIA.

You only need to come up here to Twin Peaks...

A fairly objective synopsis, regularly updated, of what actually is known about the Plame Game may be found at Factcheck.org: The Wilson-Plame-Novak-Rove Blame Game.

A couple observations here. One, the name calling which has popped up from time to time in this discussion strikes me as originating primarily within the faction in opposition to the Currrent Administration. Another, to my perception, the entire Plame Game is built on a blatant character assassination attempt, an attack orchestrated, maintained, and cherished by The Opposition. I suspect that at the end, this all will prove quite to the embarrassment of the CIA and to those who have championed the assault. Of course, I could be wrong.

We shall see.

Now perhaps someone can provide a reasonable explanation for why it is necessary for posters to intrude on threads with "breaking news."

Presumably those who frequent A2K are quite inclined to use the web for news updates as well as opinion posting.

I concede BBB had a valid reason for her seemingly excessive "cut & paste," and so I am open to an explanation for why A2K Walter Cronkites must provide us with the latest headline.