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To: abstract who wrote (62156)	7/4/2005 12:27:50 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 65232

"this official, who is no partisan gunslinger" Betsy's Page (all relevant links below) I just don't get the big excitement about the information that Matt Cooper had talked to Karl Rove. Big whoopty-di-doo. Isn't that what we would have expected. When the story first broke and reporters were trying to find out who had leaked to Robert Novak, Joseph Wilson was alleging that Rove was the leak and should be frog-marched out of the White House. Wouldn't every reporter have tried to speak to Karl Rove in that period? So why is there any shock that Cooper spoke to Rove? Cooper was investigating this after the Novak column so Cooper's conversations don't mean that Rove was the leaker and Rove's lawyer denies that he was or that Rove is a target of the investigation. It seems that all the excitement is stemming from Lawrence O'Donnell shouting that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source. So what? It is Novak's source that matters to the investigation and it isn't even clear that that source was breaking the law. Mark in Mexico reminds us of what an over-the-top partisan O'Donnell is. Mark also has a roundup of blog reaction to this story. (Link via Lorie Byrd) Gerry Daly reminds us of how Robert Novak described his source. During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue. As Daly notes, "no partisan gunslinger" sure doesn't sound like Karl Rove. Rove could have been the second official, but it doesn't sound like that guy broke the law or was deliberately leaking Plame's name. And John Hinderaker reminds us that the only one so far shown to have lied to the American people is Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband. And what is also getting ignored is that Karl Rove waived any protection from reporters that had talked to him. So, we could have known about Rove's role a lot earlier if reporters had wanted to talk about it. I know that some reporters don't like to give their sources even when secrecy has been waived. However, I just don't think that, if Rove had done something dirty, that reporters would have kept that secret until after the election. betsyspage.blogspot.com msnbc.msn.com editorandpublisher.com markinmexico.blogspot.com polipundit.com dalythoughts.com townhall.com powerlineblog.com msnbc.msn.com