Sunday, July 03, 2005
 im pretty sure the queen of hearts, karl rove, is about to do a belly flop into history. my children will never know him as the evil genius that he sorta was if it wasnt for always getting caught, which he apparently did yesterday when laurence o'donnell announced on one of my favorite shows, the mclaughlin group.
long story short former US Ambassador to Iraq (and UCSB alumn) Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger in 2002 to see if Iraq was really buying nuclear material from the african nation. Wilson found no business being done between to the two countries. In 2003 during Pres Bush's rush to war with Iraq, the president in his state of the union address said that Iraq was getting nuclear materials from Niger, and Wilson was so upset that the wrote a column in the New York Times called "What I Didn't Find In Niger" saying that that nothing of that kind had happened and that the president knew it.
BushCo was so mad that to retaliate, someone high up in the white house staff leaked information that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative. the information was leaked to rightwing columnist Bob Novak who immediately outted Plame in his column denoucing Wilson. Two other reporters know which white house staffer leaked the info, which is a federal offense, and the court gave them an ultimatium that they either tell who the source is or go to jail.
one of the reporters, Matt Cooper, works for Time. he said that he wouldnt tell but when the Supreme Court refused to force the reporter to cough up the info it got bumped back down to the court that originally demanded the name. at that point Time magazine said that it would tell the court, and show how they can prove it via a series of emails.
O'Donnell says that he knows that the source is Karl Rove. If it is Rove, he might be sent to jail for Perjury if he previously lied under oath to the Grand Jury by denying that he was the leak.
Rove, by the way, was fired in 92 from Bush Sr's campaign for... leaking things to Novak
the obvious question is why isnt Novak being brought to court and pressured into revealing his source like the other two reporters? on today's mcglaughlin group o'donnell speculated that it was probably because Novak has already told the court on the grounds that he not have to testify or go on the record if one of the other two reporters spills the beans.
the juicy chocolate center could be if Rove is tried for Treason since he outted a CIA agent during a time of war. and even though Plame herself might not have been in immediate danger by the revelation, her cohorts, informants, and business associates very well could have been.
because of the complexity of this case it might be hard for it to capture the imagination of the american public, and it couldnt have come at a worse time for the President who received what was tantamount to a Christmas gift this week when supreme court judge sandra day oconner announced her retirement. but now with his best bud, his brain, his puppet master, looking at hard time in the pokey for serious federal offenses what we might be witnessing here is the begining of the end of the bush dynasty.
 live by the reckless unlawful immoral abuse of power, die by the reckless unlawful immoral abuse of power.
the democrats couldnt have been pitched an easier underhand soft toss to knock over the fence.
tied to that the fact that journalists are caught in the middle of this means that theres no excuse for the media to ignore this, plus it involves the mastermind of BushCo who many thought was the most untouchable of a teflon administration.
pay very close attention to how the right wing bloggers and their commentors will squirm and try to find an angle out of this corner. theyve already tried to denounce odonnell, which is sad because hes not even a player in this greek tragedy, and watch how they will try to denounce every person who actually is a player
except for bob novak for writing the treason
and karl rove for being a fat bastard traitor
these people go on and on about patriotism and citizen journalism, but they dont mean it. their dude got caught
red
handed involving someones wife, the lowest attack a gentleman could make.
and then he lied about it under oath, and then he sat back and watched as two journalists played chicken with the supreme court by saying theyd go to jail before theyd reveal their source even though their source was someone who nobody should go to jail to protect.
difference is, these people were willing to go to jail to protect their profession, not to protect a person.
and in a world where commentators are constantly trying to determine the difference between a blogger and a journalist, may i suggest that a journalist is a professional willing to go to jail for their profession.
i made a photo essay + rabsteen gets it + tsar will attend cmj in sept
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Previously on busblog...
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