NYT: White House Silence on Rove's Role in Leak Enters 2nd Day

[Pirate Smile]

WASHINGTON, July 12 - President Bush offered only a stony silence today when he was asked if he planned to fire Karl Rove, a senior aide at the center of an investigation over the unmasking of an undercover C.I.A. officer.


Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, would not directly address any of a barrage of questions today about Mr. Rove's involvement.

But the war of words over Mr. Rove went on for a second straight day, with Mr. Bush's spokesman declaring that the president has confidence in Mr. Rove, the Republican national chairman joining in the defense - and a prominent Democrat saying that Mr. Rove should be fired. "Are you going to fire him?" the president was asked twice in a brief Oval Office appearance with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore. Both times, the president ignored the questions.

Then a White House aide signaled that the session was over. "Out those doors, please," the aide told journalists. "Thank you very much."

Nearly two years after stating that any administration official found to have been involved in leaking the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer would be fired, and assuring that Mr. Rove and other senior presidential aides had nothing to do with the disclosure, the White House is refusing to answer any questions about new evidence of Mr. Rove's role in the matter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/politics/12cnd-rove.html?

[mike_c]

1. I'm recommending this post...

...just for the picture of Scott McClellan looking like he's passing something ugly into his boxers. Grin and bear it, Scotty! It couldn't happen to a nicer pisswad!

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. He looks like he just realized

that the crap he's been smelling all day is coming off his own shoe.

Poor, pitiful Scottie. I just can't wait for him to go into total meltdown. He's such a twit.

[rustydog]

6. I dunno, I wouldn't mind seeing Ari Fleischer look like that

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. And I'm recommending this post because I love the idea of a

"Silence Countdown(Up)."

[Tuesday_Morning]

14. I do, too

Will tomorrow be Day 3?

[DouglasRussel]

2. The saddest part...

The saddest part of this whole thing is that half of the country doesn't give a sh*t. However ridiculous the coverup lies are when the whitehouse reveals its response, Republicans will drink the Kool Aid and pretend nothing ever happened. Y'know, like fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here.

[spooky3]

3. Welcome to DU, DouglasRussel! Unfortunately, you're right

that far too many people doesn't know and/or doesn't care. But times do change. Most people were behind Pres. Johnson & Nixon at one time, but you know what happened then. What worries me is that journalism is not what it was in those eras. If it were, public opinion would have more clearly turned around, and this administration would have already suffered the same fate.

[freeplessinseattle]

4. oh, you need to have more faith in people

as one who is studying to be a counselor, change is possible, and this is something pivotal. denial is a powerful defense mechanism but can be broken.

[nodehopper]

8. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[gardenista]

9. Wecome to DU, DouglasRussel!

:toast:

You know, you may be right, but I personally believe that treason is sexy enough for *some* of the press to finally do their job, thus changing a few of those people's taste for Kool Aid.

Furthermore, there is an "ongoing investigation", as Scotty McClellan keeps repeating. I think that with all those reminders of the "ongoing investigation", *some* people might get a little curious as to the results of that investigation.

Let's watch.

[KAZ]

13. Half of the country will give a sh*t...

..if it keeps making the early morning leads, as it did today. Shove it down their Kool-aid drinking throats. The time is now.

[Straight Shooter]

7. Liar, liar, White House on fire!

Stony silence, eh. More like stonewall silence.

[txindy]

10. I suspect Scotty will be leaving to manage his mother's campaign

Back here in Texas. Suddenly. "To spend more time with the family." Yeah, that's it.

:rofl:

Is the Slap Scotty Show on again tomorrow? I'll bring the popcorn!

[Jeff61B]

11. Rove and the Space Shuttle

Since the Karl Rove scandal is finally front and center and people have lost interest in Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields, don't you think Rove is praying that the space shuttle explodes on the launch pad just to divert attention away from his problems?

Then again, maybe that's why they insist on launching this week when the weather in Florida is so questionable. A shuttle tragedy gets people to rally around the president just as it did immediately prior to the Iraq invasion.

If (God forbid) anything happens with the launch, Karl Rove will be dancing with joy.

Jeff61B

[KAZ]

15. A little over the top, but we get your point.

Welcome to DU Jeff.

[mitchleary]

16. It's too bad

He does not have his wittle militarystud Guckert to call on........
while he sits there and grins like a f*ckin' gerbil/jack-o-lantern mix

Poor little Scottie

I hope the real press is here to stay.

[stevedeshazer]

17. Caption: "I should have used Preparation H!"

[ticapnews]

18. Good to see Scotty squirm

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050712-4.html#
I like how the picture they put on the White House site of his $hit-eating grin.

John, the President -- first of all, let me back up -- some of you asked a couple of questions about does the President still have confidence in particular individuals, specifically Karl Rove.

A couple? Try 33.

David Gregory is really stepping up on this story, too:

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.

Bill Kristol on Fox News, a friendly news channel to you...
Fox News and other Republican surrogates

Who is the John in this exchange?

MR. McCLELLAN: John, you can keep jumping in, but I'm going to try to keep going to other people in this room, as well. And we can have constructive dialogue here, I think, but that's not the way to do it.

Q It's not my job to have a constructive dialogue, Scott. Sorry.

As Jon Stewart said, the White House Press Corps has been replaced this week by real reporters...

[derbstyron]

19. Actually the question you are attributing to Gregory was actually Moran

Terry Moran of ABC News, who also has been pounding Scotty hard, along with Gregory.

I believe the John was the reporter from CBS News, but I'm not sure on that one.

[ticapnews]

20. I wish they'd put the reporter's names in these briefings...

rather than just "Q"

Then again, if they'd done that, we might have uncovered Gannuckert sooner rather than later.

[derbstyron]

21. I agree

Whose the dumbass old guy who keeps asking the bizarre freaking questions?