Cybrpnk's Rantings

There is much and sound and fury over what Karl Rove knew, when he knew it, how he learned it, and to whom he disclosed it. This is a mistake. There is a very clear and simple indictment of the Bush administration to make, and we should make it. Churning up lots of arguments and engaging counters from the right on each one is wasted energy. You want traction, stick to a simple message. There are only two possible interpretations of Rove's actions, neither of them reflect well on the Bush White House. Either Rove passed on solid information which he had used government resources to confirm, or he passed on unsubstantiated rumour. The first is a crime, the second is pure slime, which this administration claims to be above. Sure, none of us who are politically engaged think that they believe that line, but lots of ordinary people do, and they are the ones we want to get to.

According to the stories that we have been getting from Rove, Robert Novak and Matt Cooper of Time the chronology appears to be that Novak told Rove about Plame. Rove then told Cooper. Since this is the version being offered by the right as a defense, let's just take it as is, and show how this best-case scenario from them is actually really bad. Once Rove received the information from Novak, he either confirmed it before passing it along to Cooper, or he didn't. If he did confirm it, then he was using his official position to obtain information about a CIA employee. Even if there was no issue of covert operations, accessing personnel records and then divulging them is still an abuse of power. Presumably these records are not generally available. I would think that were someone without the appropriate security clearance to attempt to gain this information they would be stonewalled. For example, Novak probably couldn't have confirmed this information without inside help. Remember the flap about the Clinton administration illegally obtaining personnel records? This seems at least as bad, and arguably much worse since an intelligence operative is involved. So, if Rove acted to confirm the information from Novak, and then passed along what he learned, we have at the very least a breach of the presumed confidentiality of government personnel records. I believe that that is a crime. At the worst, Rove used his security clearance and then divulged classified information, thus blowing the cover of covert CIA operatives.

Ah, but what if Rove didn't confirm any of the information he got from Novak, but just passed it along. This appears to be the defense that the right is cooking up. But how much of a defense is it? A high-ranking White House official personally passed along rumour and innuendo about someone he had reason to believe was a CIA agent in order to damage the credibility of that person's spouse. If this is what George W. Bush means when he talks about bringing integrity back to the White House, I'd hate to find out what he considers dirty tricks. This is dirty, disgusting, slimy, underhanded, and despicable. For the President of The United States to sanction this sort of heinous behavior is below deplorable. Then you top it off with this administration's sanctimonious blather about the family. Oh yeah, we love the family. We think women should be loyal to their husbands. We respect the sanctity of marriage. Oh, but if we can gain politically by trashing someone's spouse because we don't like what they are saying about us we will do so? I feel unclean just thinking about how mud-spattered this administration is. If the best defense this crowd can come up with is that they are admittedly bottom-dwelling scum-suckers, one suspects that the real story is so ugly that even Bush supporters will be dismayed if it ever comes to light.