Atlanta Journal: "Rove did nothing wrong, illegal, or even unethical"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

ON EDIT:

ajc.com > Opinion

EQUAL TIME

"This column is solicited to provide another viewpoint to an AJC editorial published today. To respond to an AJC editorial, contact David Beasley at [e-mail] or call 404-526-7371. Responses should be no longer than 600 words. Not all responses can be published."

END OF EDIT

No indication yet that Rove guilty of wrong

By DAVID REINHARD
Published on: 07/27/05

"Anyone in the Bush administration who knowingly outed an undercover CIA agent should be hunted down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In fact, I'd favor . . . stringing up the culprit from one of those huge trees along the Washington Mall."

Almost two years later, I still feel this way, and if that anyone includes Karl Rove — well, "The Architect" of Bush's re-election will have designed his own scaffold. But nothing we've seen so far suggests Rove did anything wrong — wrong as in illegal, or even unethical.

Maybe Rove was part of some crafty Team Bush conspiracy to "out" Joe Wilson's CIA undercover wife. Maybe Rove's little chat with Time reporter Matt Cooper was a seemingly innocent piece of a malevolent, multipronged plan to punish Wilson for disputing the Bush White House on Iraq. Maybe the fact that Rove talked to Robert Novak before the columnist named Valerie Plame, as the media reported Friday, was, too. Maybe.

We'll know if, or how, Rove's words to Cooper or Novak fit into any grand scheme when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald issues his report or makes his case. But right now — after Newsweek's report on the e-mail Cooper wrote after talking to Rove, after media reports on Rove's possible conversation with Novak — Rove has nothing to apologize for.



"David Reinhard is an associate editor of The Oregonian of Portland, Ore."

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0705/27edequal.html

[Modem Butterfly]

1. Shouldn't that be Oregonian?

This is an equal time editorial from an associate editor of The Oregonian in Portland, OR, NOT the AJC.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. I put AJC in the headline because it was posted on AJC...

...but put his "credentials" in the thread to identify him as the associate editor of the Oregonian. So either way, AJC hosted a neocon from the Oregonian and everyone is represented.

:toast:

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BillZBubb]

3. I know which monkey this guy is: "SEE NO EVIL"

I'm sure to him 2 + 2 = 5, or whatever the Repugs tell him it is.

[swag]

6. You got it.

He just paraphrases the talking points and press releases. Sad to see his trash being printed in other papers now too.

[RobertSeattle]

4. Misleading Subject

Just to be clear --- This is by a guest "Equal Time" columnist in the AJC opinion pages, not the position of the AJC Editoral Board.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. OK, look at the edit and let's get back to what he's actually saying.

:toast:

[Cha]

7. To paraphrase something on buzzflash..

Treason is fine with them as long as it's a republican doing it.

[jojo54]

9. ,,,,,"wrong as in illegal, or even unethical."

It's time for a dose of reality, freeps.

[kestrel91316]

10. Well, Fitz may beg to differ. nt

[kentuck]

11. Nothing is illegal or unethical in a war....

And everything is about the "war"...It's all done to "protect" the American people.

[gratuitous]

12. Ah, good old David "Room Temperature" Reinhard

"Room temperature" being my estimate of his IQ. Funny, I thought the columns he submitted to the Oregonian in his trademark red crayon never went any further, but I see now that I was incorrect.

Reinhard is as reliable a mouthpiece for neocon talking points as exists in Oregon. His standard dodge is to see no evil when it comes to Republicans, but his febrile little mind goes hog-wild extrapolating all sorts of perfidy from even the mildest Democratic criticism of Dear Leader and his crooked cabal.

When Rove is found guilty and marched off to jail, Reinhard will have nothing to say about it. Instead, he'll be haring off after the latest GOP talking point, whatever it is, and pronouncing it as the deathless standard for all U.S. policy forever. Until the next talking point comes out, that is.

"Room Temperature" Reinhard is a master of Orwellian doublethink.

[grumpy old fart]

13. So to this guy, it's ok if someone initiates the opening to leak..........

Rove's not responsible if he just used an opening provided by a reporter for the leak. What a meat head.

<snip>Rove didn't initiate the call; Cooper called him on welfare reform. The Wilson issue came up at the end of a two-minute conversation. Also, says Rove's lawyer, it was Cooper who broached the topic. Rove never uttered the name Valerie Plame, but here's Cooper's account of what he did say: "It was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues who authorized the trip."

Let's assume Rove talked to Novak before Novak "outed" Plame. Again, Novak called Rove on another topic. Rove wasn't leaking a story. Nor was he the one who uttered Plame's name. The left calls Rove "Bush's Brain." Apparently he's "Cooper's Brain" and "Novak's Brain," too.<snip>