[theknife]

Originally Posted by Sinner

Karl Rove is to George Bush what Ollie North is to Ronald Reagan.

and nobody ever learns the basic lesson: it's not the deed, it's the lies and the cover-up that makes it all unravel.

the interesting thing about this one is that it is the CIA who asked for this investigation, which effectively negates the usual "liberal media smear" defense. obviously, the investigation would have been closed on Day 2 if Valerie Plame was not a covert op.

At CIA Director George J. Tenet's request, the Justice Department is looking into an allegation that administration officials leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer to a journalist, government sources said yesterday.

now 2 years later, it is the subsequent and now well-documented lies of Scott McClellan are what brought this back to life. LA Times comments on the real scandal:

If you can't shoot the messenger, take aim at his wife.

That clearly was the intent of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove in leaking to a reporter that former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent. To try to conceal the fact that the president had lied to the American public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, Rove attempted to destroy the credibility of two national security veterans and send an intimidating message to any other government officials preparing to publicly tell the truth.