I kind of think that when they write this stuff they should point out if statements don't jibe with the facts rather than just letting it hang there as this is what he said. Plus, as you say David, I think the full implications of burning Plame for political purposes should be stated. It could be said in a sentence or two so it's not like it would radically throw off the focus of an article. People need to hear and understand this stuff.
Anyway, I'm posting the articles from the Boston Globe to show how the local papers are following this stuff. I know the Washington Post is on it. The Globe ran this story today in the Nation section. The Rove defense strategy is clear and to my eyes pretty weak. The claim that he told reporters that Wilson's wife is a CIA operative but never mentioned her by name...because his lawyer claims he did not know her name...is beyond absurd. First, Rove is a dirt digger, a muckraker, and is basically paid (hence Dubya's own nickname for him...Turd Blossom) to be a professional shit flinger. As soon as he pegged Wilson as a political enemy I'm sure he assembled a file on him six inches thick. Basic stuff like the name of his wife and her occupation would have appeared on the first page of that file. Cooper says in his e-mail Rove said Wilson's wife was a CIA operative that worked in the WMD field...we're supposed to buy that he knew that but not her name...give me a break. I certainly can't see Mr. Fitzgerald taking that argument seriously. The fact is that to tell a reporter that Wilson's wife is a CIA operative involved with WMD's is the same as stating her name because the reporter could locate her name with that info in minutes. So, I'm almost thinking here Rove's attorney is just trying to find a way to plead down the charges because he knows Rove is cooked. It couldn't happen to a nicer fella.
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White House shunts Rove queries
Democrats demand adviser's dismissal
WASHINGTON -- The White House yesterday deflected questions surrounding Karl Rove's conversation with a Time magazine reporter about the identity of a CIA agent, as Democrats denounced the actions of the top adviser to President Bush, with some calling on Bush to fire his longtime confidant.
Three days before CIA agent Valerie Plame was identified by syndicated columnist Robert Novak, Rove told Time that the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV -- Plame -- worked for the CIA, according to internal magazine communications that have been provided to a federal prosecutor.
Rove's lawyer acknowledged Sunday that his client was a confidential source for Time's Matthew Cooper, but maintains that Rove did not know Plame's name and was not involved in leaking it to Novak or any other journalists. Knowingly exposing the name of a covert agent is a federal crime.
Bush administration officials were on the defensive yesterday following those disclosures, which were reported Sunday by Newsweek. White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who has previously contended that Rove was not involved in the case, declined to repeat that assertion yesterday.
McClellan reaffirmed Bush's vow to fire any White House official found to have leaked the identity of an undercover agent, but said he would not discuss the case in deference to the criminal investigation.
''There will be a time to talk about this, but now is not the time to talk about it," he said. '' I think the way to be most helpful is to not get into commenting on it while it is an ongoing investigation. That's something that the people overseeing the investigation have expressed a preference that we follow."
The disclosure of Rove's conversation with Cooper is a political embarrassment for a president who has condemned the leak of Plame's identity. Rove is one of Bush's closest advisers, and the most recent disclosures suggest that he possessed at least a portion of the information that sparked the federal probe, even if he didn't leak the name directly.
Some Democrats said Rove should be fired based on the information that his lawyer says is true, or at least should have his security clearances revoked pending the outcome of the investigation.
Identifying Wilson's wife as a CIA employee could have placed Plame's life in danger, since it would have been easy to ascertain her identity through public records linked to Wilson, said Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
The top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, Representative Henry A. Waxman, called for a congressional investigation of Rove and other White House officials in connection to the leak of Plame's identity.
Regarding the contention that Rove said Wilson's wife was in the CIA but did not name her or say she was an undercover agent, Waxman said it amounts to a ''distinction without a difference."
''The intentional disclosure of a covert CIA agent's identity would be an act of treason," Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote in a letter to the committee chairman, Tom Davis.
A spokesman for Davis said the Virginia Republican had not had a chance to review Waxman's letter. Davis has previously resisted efforts by Democrats to launch a congressional investigation of the Plame matter.
In July 2003, Novak wrote a column citing ''two administration officials" as saying that Plame is a CIA agent. The column was published shortly after Wilson wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, based on a trip to Africa he said was instigated by the CIA, that was critical of Bush administration contentions regarding Iraqi attempts to gain materials for weapons of mass destruction.
The special prosecutor on the leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, compelled Time to release Cooper's notes. Cooper agreed to testify last week after getting his source, Rove, to release him from any confidentiality agreement. 
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