EXCELLENT post mccleanhatch! I'd like to see you post more, to balance the socialist circle jerk around here.
Dems seem to think that Karl Rove is their entree to possibly impeach Bush (and don't even assume that this is not their ultimate goal here). They're angry because their desire for an independent counsel --- something they loved for Reagan and Bush, hated for Clinton, love for Bush II (but, no, the main stream media doesn't have an agenda. Don't be silly) --- backfired and led to journalists being imprisoned.
It's even more ironic since we KNOW Karl Rove gave Judith Miller his permission to discuss anything they discussed on this issue and the NY Times had her refuse --- which means that, most likely, Rove WASN'T THE MAIN SOURCE OF THE STORY.
Rove wasn't even a remotely tertiary source. He's just the bogeyman the press wants to crucify because one of their own is being thrust upon the patard created by the press.
Let's face a few facts:
1) No law was broken, whatsoever. The woman who WROTE the law (Victoria Toensing) has said the law was not broken and, odds are, she knows more about it than the media.
2) Since the reporters have Rove's permission to talk, he isn't the primary source. Not least of which, the press would NEVER keep anything incriminating about him quiet. Something would have leaked out more damaging than the emails (which only show that Rove didn't know her name nor did he have clearance to read Wilson's report. He simply told Cooper to not go over the edge covering Wilson's story as it didn't hold up)
Rove DID see George Tenet's statement before George issued it and saw how much it undercut most of Wilson's story. He gave Time a friendly warning.
Rove didn't know she was ever an agent (he didn't have access to that info) and didn't read Wilson's report (or else he would have utterly undressed Wilson's op-ed).
The person who "outed" Plame was not Rove. Odds are, it was another reporter, as her working for the CIA was as big a secret in Washington as Santa Claus not actually existing.
3) The more the press plays this, the more it'll end up backfiring. The press is so screwed here it is not comical. No harm will come to Rove because he didn't actually do anything. Bush is spotless here.
BUT, the press is neck-deep. The reporters know who told them everything and they aren't talking. Which means that the sources aren't on "their side" (Rove's attorney has pointed out that Cooper's article actually completely mischaracterizes what Rove actually told him). In fact, as Luskin pointed out, Rove didn't call Cooper (it was vice versa) and the conversation dealt with welfare reform for the most part.
Not exactly a campaign to out anybody.
In fact, the conservative contingent is in no apparent danger whatsoever. Novak has already testified and isn't even in the crosshairs. Rove has given all reporters permission to speak. But the only people in legal hot water are the reporters, not any political figures.
4) Valerie Plame's actual standing as a covert agent is shaky. Agents undercover don't often have deskjobs at Langley. She may have been once, but there is zero evidence she was one at the time of the "leak".
And her posing for pictures in Vanity Fair did more to make her public than anything else.
