Okay, how about this from Bloomberg: `By saying the conduct must be criminal, the president is significantly backtracking,'' said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University. AND``This is especially so because the crime involved is so narrow.''Over the past two years, the White House has changed its language about potential consequences for leakers. On Sept. 29, 2003, McClellan told reporters that Bush set ``the highest of standards'' for his administration. Speaking of the Plame leak, he said, ``If anyone in this administration were involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.''Bush's Shift Offers Support for Rove in Probe of CIA Agent Leak
July 19 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush raised the threshold for ousting his top aide, Karl Rove, if he revealed the identity of a covert CIA agent.
Asked about the status of Rove -- a subject of a special prosecutor's inquiry into the leak -- Bush said yesterday that any administration official who committed a crime would be fired. Previously, Bush and White House spokesman Scott McClellan suggested the mere disclosure of the name of the agent, Valerie Plame, would warrant dismissal. On June 10, 2004, Bush answered ``Yes'' when asked whether he would fire anyone who leaked Plame's name.
``By saying the conduct must be criminal, the president is significantly backtracking,'' said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University. ``This is especially so because the crime involved is so narrow.''
Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper on July 17 said Rove told him two years ago that the wife of former ambassador and Bush critic Joseph Wilson worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
On July 8, 2003, syndicated columnist Robert Novak discussed Wilson and his wife with Rove, according to the New York Times. The Times quoted an attorney familiar with Fitzgerald's probe as saying that when Novak mentioned that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, Rove said, ``Yeah, I've heard that too.'' Novak published her name in a column on July 14, 2003.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating based on a 1982 law that prohibits revealing the name of a covert operative knowingly and with the awareness that the government is trying to conceal the agent's identity. The disclosure is considered a criminal act only if the agent worked overseas in the past five years; Plame has lived in the U.S. since 1997.
Close Adviser
Rove, 54, is one of Bush's closest advisers and now serves as deputy chief of staff. Rove's office directed calls to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. McClellan refused to comment on the involvement of administration aides in revealing the name or on statements from Cooper that he got some information on the matter from Rove.
``We don't know all the facts,'' McClellan said at the White House news briefing yesterday.
Wilson, a former diplomat who served in Iraq and in African countries, wrote an opinion article published in the July 6, 2003, edition of the New York Times saying the administration ``twisted'' some of the intelligence about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Cooper said that Rove told him five days later that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and sent Wilson to Niger to investigate whether President Saddam Hussein's regime was seeking uranium to make nuclear weapons.
Cheney Aide
Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, later confirmed the information, Cooper said on NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' though neither Libby nor Rove identified Plame by name. Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment.
Over the past two years, the White House has changed its language about potential consequences for leakers. On Sept. 29, 2003, McClellan told reporters that Bush set ``the highest of standards'' for his administration. Speaking of the Plame leak, he said, ``If anyone in this administration were involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.''
A day later, Bush said anyone who violated the law ``would be taken care of,'' and added, ``If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action.''
27 Questions
Yesterday, the first question to the president during a joint press conference with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was about Rove. McClellan later was asked about the subject 27 times during his daily briefing for reporters. Asked repeatedly whether Bush's statement effectively raised the bar for a potential dismissal, he said: ``I would not read anything into it more than what the president said.''
According to an ABC News poll released yesterday, 75 percent of the 1,008 respondents questioned July 13-17 said Rove should be fired if he leaked classified information. In addition, only 25 percent of respondents said they believe the White House is fully cooperating in the investigation, down from 47 percent in September 2003, when the inquiry began.
The political reaction to the Rove controversy has split largely along partisan lines as Democrats assailed Rove and Republicans defended him.
The Ethical Standard
``The president has now lowered the ethical standard for White House employees,'' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement. ```If indicted, you can serve.'''
She added that ``presidential advisers are not given access to classified information to play politics with the lives of intelligence sources or our national security.''
A ``war room'' operated by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid prepared a memo for Senate Democrats that raised additional questions about the leak of Plame's name. Posed as a series of questions and possible answers, the memo suggests that Novak may have used Plame's last name -- which she used in her covert operations -- rather than her married name, Wilson, because someone intentionally gave the columnist the name that would do the most damage to her career.
`Brazen Effort'
``Maybe going after a clandestine officer was intended as simply the latest and most brazen effort to intimidate and exert pressure on agency analysts and officers,'' the memo said. ``Only the leakers know their motives.''
Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, sent a letter to Bush saying his comments yesterday reflected a new standard that isn't consistent with the president's obligation under an executive order governing the protection of national- security secrets.
``I urge you to act in compliance'' with the executive order and ``your responsibility to safeguard national secrets,'' Waxman said.
For the most part, Republicans rallied around Rove. ``If people don't think this is a political witch hunt, then they should go read a Nancy Drew novel,'' said Representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican.
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