Saturday
16Jul2005
Rove: Fire him Mr. President
Saturday, July 16, 2005 at 11:19AM
It's all getting very sick now....
Just been watching Fox News and the Republicans are closing ranks behind slovenly Republican political strategist Karl Rove. Rove's squirming attorney's words are being taken as gospel by the senators and the news channel. However this fabric of lies does not so easily sucker the mainstream media.
Of course the deeper story was the outright lie that Saddam has sourced yellowcake in Niger, and who told this porky? It's Mr. Bush!
I can just imagine the behind the scenes politicking at the Whitehouse attempting to save their political Buddha. The chubby Rove has repeatedly changed his story over the last 2 years so why should we believe the balloon headed one now?
We have a journalist (NY Times: Judith Miller) in jail involved over the same incident and Robert Novak (the conservative columnist) keeping quiet, at least in public. One would imagine the Whitehouse applying the pressure on Novak to corroborate pro-Rove stories however he may have already told the truth to the official investigation. What a shame?
The simple fact is that the Right are now trying to get the vulgarian Rove off the hook on technicality of language: was Plame covert or not?
The right suggests that Valerie Plame was not a 'covert' operative therefore her identity was not sensitive. However she was deemed sensitive enough to be under a pseudonym in the first place and as a 'Directorate of Operations' would have known the identity and location of very sensitive operatives in the field (how AQ would like to have this information). We all know now that security takes second place to partisan vengeance.
So as we have seen with the reports of US official burning a UK mole, we have an administration more interested in consolidating political power than ensuring that they are victorious in the so called War on Terror.
Why has the President - someone who prides himself on his straight talking honesty with the American people - been so quiet? Passing off reporters questions with a dismissive arrogant brush the hand Bush did not need this scandal. Bush's Presidency is unravelling as the public turn against his Iraq folly and his Social Security plan, the last thing he needed was his 'architect'' mired in controversy.
Now we will see the ethical standards of Bush and the Republican Party. Rove is a reptile that puts political before the security of operatives whose lives are in danger.
Bush promised to fire anyone involved in this scandal. Scott McClellan is also embroiled: -
"In September 2003, Mr. McClellan said flatly that Mr. Rove had not been involved in disclosing Ms. Plame's name. Asked about the issue on Sept. 29, 2003, Mr. McClellan said he had "spoken with Karl Rove," and that it was "simply not true" that Mr. Rove had a role in the disclosure of her identity. Two weeks earlier, he had called suggestions that Mr. Rove had been involved "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department opened its investigation, Mr. McClellan told reporters that Mr. Rove, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Libby had nothing to do with the leak." The NY Times
Seems to me that the honour and credibility of McClellan and Rove is beyond salvage and both must be fired. Of course as soon as the crisis has subsided the usual Republican cronyism will ensue. If Jeb stands in '08 he will have the disgraced Rove in tow no doubt.
See this Whitehouse exchange last week?
Of course none of this should not come as a surprise to Bush, what should he expect when one surrounds oneself with Nixonian's such as Cheney?
Just been watching Fox News and the Republicans are closing ranks behind slovenly Republican political strategist Karl Rove. Rove's squirming attorney's words are being taken as gospel by the senators and the news channel. However this fabric of lies does not so easily sucker the mainstream media.
Of course the deeper story was the outright lie that Saddam has sourced yellowcake in Niger, and who told this porky? It's Mr. Bush!
I can just imagine the behind the scenes politicking at the Whitehouse attempting to save their political Buddha. The chubby Rove has repeatedly changed his story over the last 2 years so why should we believe the balloon headed one now?
We have a journalist (NY Times: Judith Miller) in jail involved over the same incident and Robert Novak (the conservative columnist) keeping quiet, at least in public. One would imagine the Whitehouse applying the pressure on Novak to corroborate pro-Rove stories however he may have already told the truth to the official investigation. What a shame?
The simple fact is that the Right are now trying to get the vulgarian Rove off the hook on technicality of language: was Plame covert or not?
The right suggests that Valerie Plame was not a 'covert' operative therefore her identity was not sensitive. However she was deemed sensitive enough to be under a pseudonym in the first place and as a 'Directorate of Operations' would have known the identity and location of very sensitive operatives in the field (how AQ would like to have this information). We all know now that security takes second place to partisan vengeance.
So as we have seen with the reports of US official burning a UK mole, we have an administration more interested in consolidating political power than ensuring that they are victorious in the so called War on Terror.
Why has the President - someone who prides himself on his straight talking honesty with the American people - been so quiet? Passing off reporters questions with a dismissive arrogant brush the hand Bush did not need this scandal. Bush's Presidency is unravelling as the public turn against his Iraq folly and his Social Security plan, the last thing he needed was his 'architect'' mired in controversy.
Now we will see the ethical standards of Bush and the Republican Party. Rove is a reptile that puts political before the security of operatives whose lives are in danger.
Bush promised to fire anyone involved in this scandal. Scott McClellan is also embroiled: -
"In September 2003, Mr. McClellan said flatly that Mr. Rove had not been involved in disclosing Ms. Plame's name. Asked about the issue on Sept. 29, 2003, Mr. McClellan said he had "spoken with Karl Rove," and that it was "simply not true" that Mr. Rove had a role in the disclosure of her identity. Two weeks earlier, he had called suggestions that Mr. Rove had been involved "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department opened its investigation, Mr. McClellan told reporters that Mr. Rove, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Libby had nothing to do with the leak." The NY Times
Seems to me that the honour and credibility of McClellan and Rove is beyond salvage and both must be fired. Of course as soon as the crisis has subsided the usual Republican cronyism will ensue. If Jeb stands in '08 he will have the disgraced Rove in tow no doubt.
See this Whitehouse exchange last week?
Q = Journalists
MR. McCLELLAN: Wait -- I don't think that helps advance the investigation.
Q All right, you say you won't discuss it, but the Republican National Committee and others working, obviously, on behalf of the White House, they put out this Wilson-Rove research and talking points, distributed to Republican surrogates, which include things like, Karl Rove discouraged a reporter from writing a false story. And then other Republican surrogates are getting information such as, Cooper -- the Time reporter -- called Rove on the pretense of discussing welfare reform. Bill Kristol on Fox News, a friendly news channel to you, said that the conversation lasted for two minutes and it was just at the end that Rove discussed this. So someone is providing this information. Are you, behind the scenes, directing a response to this story?
MR. McCLELLAN: You can talk to the RNC about what they put out. I'll let them speak to that. What I know is that the President directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation. And as part of cooperating fully with that investigation, that means supporting the efforts by the investigators to come to a successful conclusion, and that means not commenting on it from this podium.
Q Well, if --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I understand your question.
Q Well, Fox News and other Republican surrogates are essentially saying that the conversation lasted for two minutes and that the subject was ostensibly welfare reform. They're getting that information from here, from Karl Rove.
MR. McCLELLAN: And again, you're asking questions that are related to news reports about an ongoing, continuing investigation. And you've had my response on that.
Of course none of this should not come as a surprise to Bush, what should he expect when one surrounds oneself with Nixonian's such as Cheney?
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