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Saturday, July 23, 2005

I saw pigs with some strange bumps on their backs last night
Posted by Jill | 8:06 AM

The jury is still out as to whether it's the beginning of wings, though.

While the pod people of Planet Delusional are still braying that Valerie Plame was a desk jockey and that there was no controlling legal authority that was violated by Karl Rove, and it depends on what the definition of "name" is, a low rumble has been detected deep beneath the GOP, and a tsunami watch has been issued.

Prosecutors have also probed Rove's testimony about his telephone conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in the crucial days before Plame's name was revealed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak.

Rove has testified thathe and Cooper talked about welfare reform foremost and turned to the topic of Plame only near the end, lawyers involved in the case said. But Cooper, writing about his testimony in the most recent issue of Time, said he "can't find any record of talking about" welfare reform. "I don't recall doing so," Cooper wrote.

Both Libby's attorney and Rove's attorney declined to comment yesterday, as did Fitzgerald's office. The possible conflicts in the accounts given by Russert and Libby were first reported yesterday by Bloomberg News.

Fitzgerald's review of apparent discrepancies are further evidence that his investigation has ranged beyond his original mission to determine if someone broke the law by knowingly revealing the identity of a covert operative.


Even if a specific law wasn't broken, one would be hard pressed to believe that what Rove and Libby did was A-OK after watching the registered Republican Larry Johnson and three other retired CIA agents tell us more than we ever knew about how the CIA works yesterday. Their indignation was palpable. These people are proud public servants who believe that when Republican political operatives and pundits smear Valerie Plame, they're smearing the entire organization.

Watching some of the hearing on C-SPAN last night (I recorded the rest to watch today), I was struck by how times have changed. There was a time when it was not uncommon for people to believe that the CIA was some kind of shadow government that actually ran things, and when public officials got in their way, they were disposed of. God knows the "CIA killed Kennedy" meme got its share of play. Now, however, in the Bush era, it seems that the CIA has been completely eviscerated and is now simply a paper tiger. The Bush Administration blamed them for 9/11. The Bush Administration blamed them for bad intelligence leading to the war in Iraq. And the CIA has just lain down and taken it....until now. One has to wonder just how detached Bush Senior, who certainly knows the ins and outs of the CIA, really is from the atrocities his son has committed upon the nation and the world.

But the hearings are fascinating watching. If you missed them, a transcript can be found here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

But here's where the pigs with the strange bumps come in: there is actually one Republican who recognizes the double standard that the pod people are using in evaluating Karl Rove, simply because he's a Republican...and it's none other than Joe Scarborough:

The Karl Rove controversy highlights the hypocrisy infecting Washington's most powerful politicians and reporters.

Republicans are quickly lining up to support Mr. Rove, while Democrats are calling for his head. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has called for Rove's resignation — a silly suggestion from a silly man.

But there is nothing funny about the Republican's treatment of the Rove affair.

Assuming Rove leaked a CIA agent's identity to Time Magazine, GOP leaders should be lining up to condemn the White House Wizard's actions.

Why? Because they would have shredded a Democratic administration for outing an undercover CIA agent during a time of war.

Imagine Bill Clinton's top political advisor leaking a CIA agent's identity because of the actions of the agent's spouse. Republicans, including yours truly, would have been demanding that official's resignation at once.

But with one of their own in the White House, Republicans are instead focusing their attacks on former ambassador Joe Wilson.

Though Wilson is an easy target for writing a book filled with lies with the ironic title "The Politics of Truth," do Republicans suggest that a CIA agent can be called out during a time of war because of their spouse's misdeeds?

If so, it is a frightening new world for undercover agents who are paid to protect our country.


Of course then he goes on to bash Joe Wilson for simply, as Wilson has said, exercising his right as an American citizen to choose the leaders of his country. But hey, you can't have everything.
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