Leave it to the WSJ editorial board: "Karl Rove, Whistleblower"

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006955

Karl Rove, Whistleblower

He told the truth about Joe Wilson.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove's head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we'd say the White House political guru deserves a prize--perhaps the next iteration of the "Truth-Telling" award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.

For Mr. Rove is turning out to be the real "whistleblower" in this whole sorry pseudo-scandal. He's the one who warned Time's Matthew Cooper and other reporters to be wary of Mr. Wilson's credibility. He's the one who told the press the truth that Mr. Wilson had been recommended for the CIA consulting gig by his wife, not by Vice President Dick Cheney as Mr. Wilson was asserting on the airwaves. In short, Mr. Rove provided important background so Americans could understand that Mr. Wilson wasn't a whistleblower but was a partisan trying to discredit the Iraq War in an election campaign. Thank you, Mr. Rove.

Media chants aside, there's no evidence that Mr. Rove broke any laws in telling reporters that Ms. Plame may have played a role in her husband's selection for a 2002 mission to investigate reports that Iraq was seeking uranium ore in Niger. To be prosecuted under the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Mr. Rove would had to have deliberately and maliciously exposed Ms. Plame knowing that she was an undercover agent and using information he'd obtained in an official capacity. But it appears Mr. Rove didn't even know Ms. Plame's name and had only heard about her work at Langley from other journalists.

_______________________

(Other journalists, you say? Intriguing.)

[punpirate]

1. Hope the WSJ editorialists gag on this...

... when they have to eat it raw.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. I can't decide if this is pathetic of frightening.

[zoids]

5. I love the pic of the cat!!!! n/t

[wtmusic]

7. Both -- and business as usual

it wouldn't suprise me if Rove fed this story to the WSJ (maybe we'll have a scandal in a couple of years about this one too) :crazy:

[iconoclastic cat]

11. Homer Simpson: "Yeah, I'm stupid...stupid like a fox!"

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. rove is shit. rove will be brought to justice eventually.

[zoids]

4. And this suprises who? n/t

[RobertSeattle]

6. WSJ Beats The Onion to the punch(!)

Simply Absurd. The Right Wing is losing what little intellectual integrity they MAY have left in defending Rove.

[Talismom]

8. Just completed a response to the paper. What a horrible editorial!

I just can't believe how many sell-outs and whores there are collaborating with these traitors! I told them that the many people who still care about the safety and well-being of this country would never stop fighting them and calling them the hypocrites that they are! I'm just so pissed off!

:rant:

x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( :freak: :freak: :freak: :freak:

[JohnnyBoots]

9. The more

they circle the wagons and yell, "All is well!" The more we know they are in deep shit. I think they are trying to set up public opinion for damage control when Fitzgerald brings down the indictments so that it will look like a "vast left wing conspiracy" hoping to hurt us in 2006.

[Toots]

10. "trying to discredit the Iraq War in an election campaign."

There was no Iraqi War when this took place nor was there an election campaign. This was all done during the build up towards Iraq. This is just a LIE plain and simple and someone should call them on it.

[Richard Steele]

13. Yes,wasn't B*sh still pretending that WAR was a 'last resort' at the time?

[flpoljunkie]

15. Actually, Wilson wrote his op-ed on July 6, 2003. War began in late March

[Toots]

17. I must be having one of those CRS moments but I thought this was all

about the build-up towards war. I thought it was about Niger supposedly selling Yellowcake to Iraq and Wilson was sent to verify if this was fact. I must have my time frame all wrong. If war had already started why would the CIA bother to send Wilson over there to find out if such events occured? :shrug:

[flpoljunkie]

18. Wilson was indeed sent over to Niger before the war, in February, 2002.

Here is link to his New York Times op-ed, written July 6, 2003. It will answer your questions.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm

[Ilsa]

12. This would all be so reasonable if Wilson ahd been wrong about

the WMD and if the Neocons had been right about Iraq and the war.

Now we need a whistleblower as to how much the WSJ board is making off the war.

[Fridays Child]

14. Uh mm...uhhh MMM...

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[tblue37]

16. Um,

Wilson was not paid at all for this "job," and in fact undertook it on his own dime. In other words, his expenses were not paid. So exactly why should we care if his wife recommended him for it? They needed someone with a certain type of expertise, and she knew someone who had that type of expertise. How is this even remotely shady?

Several years ago, a geography professor at the university where I work needed an editor to help him cut his 500-page dissertation down to 300 pages so his committee would accept it. The English professor I was dating at the time put this guy in touch with me, I edited his dissertation for him, and with my help he completed it within a couple of months.

In other words, the English professor knew someone who could do the job the geography preofessor needed done, and I did it and did it well. The fact that the English professor was involved with me at the time simply was not relevant--even though in this case I actually was paid to do the job.

But Wilson made no money at all from the job he did. He derived no personal benefit. So even if Plame did recommend him, what the hell difference would that make?

[joemurphy]

19. This is hilarious ... like they live in an alternate reality...in a

strange world...all their own...where black is white, wrong is right, and the smell of their own farts is oddly delicious. It's a bizarro world of their own making, free from reality, where away from time and space they can smile at one another, nod their heads together, and be happy.

Let's not make too much noise. A loud interruption -- like Karl Rove's potential indictment after his three appearances in front of the grand jury -- might disturb what the WSJ Editorial Board takes for bliss.