Bush stands behind Rove
Cites ongoing investigation of CIA leak
By Sinclere Lee
WASHINGTON (BNW) – In the join, we call them Gumps, Boys and Whores; in the streets we call them Fags, Punks and Sissies, all-in-all, it takes a fagot bitch like Karl Rove to out or snitch-out an undercover agent. In fact, it should be considered treason for a government official to put a CIA operative’s life in danger.
Hey, I always said that Karl Roves is an undercover fag named Karletta. Consider this; you can take Karletta and give her a pink dress, fishnet stockings, a blond wig, some red lipstick and she will be good to go. Especially for Stupid Bush, why, Bush would rather have some Booty Cake over Rice Pudding any day of the week.
Just last week Bush said he will not comment on Karletta’s role in leaking the identity of a CIA operative while the investigation is ongoing. Right!
"This is a serious investigation," Bush said at the end of a meeting with his Cabinet, with Rove sitting just behind him. "I will be more than happy to comment on this matter once this investigation is complete.
"I also will not prejudge the investigation based on media reports," he said.
Bush's comments follow the disclosure that Rove, the president's top political adviser, talked about the officer in a July 11, 2003, conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.
Cooper wrote an article in 2003 in which he identified the officer as Valerie Plame, although Rove did not discuss her by name.
Bush said last year he would fire anyone found to have leaked Plame's identity. Democrats have called for Rove's dismissal.
Cooper, a key figure in the Rove controversy, did not comment while entering U.S. District Court on Wednesday. The grand jury investigating the leak was meeting and it was expected Cooper would testify.
Cooper wrote an article in 2003 in which he identified the officer as Valerie Plame. It was disclosed this week that the story ran after a July 11, 2003, conversation with Rove during which the political adviser discussed Plame but not by name.
Cooper had refused to reveal his source for the story but agreed to do so after a confidentiality agreement was waived. That came just before Cooper could have been sent to jail for not cooperating with the investigation into who in the Bush administration leaked her name and whether that constituted a crime.
Cooper's employer, Time magazine, also turned over Cooper's e-mail and notes.
Another reporter, Judith Miller of The New York Times, is in prison after refusing to disclose her source to investigators.
In September and October 2003, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said he had spoken to Rove about the Plame matter and that Rove wasn't involved in the leak.
McClellan refused for a second day Tuesday to discuss the denials of two years ago, saying that to do so would impinge on the ongoing criminal investigation of the leak.
Bush ignored a question Tuesday about whether he would fire Rove now that it's known his adviser did talk to Cooper. But McClellan said later that "any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president." McClellan said that includes Rove.
First lady Laura Bush, talking to reporters while traveling in Africa on Wednesday, called Rove "a very good friend" whom the Bushes have known for many years.
"It would be irresponsible for me to speculate on any of it," she said, "so I think I'll leave the speculation to you all, and I'll leave the investigation" to the prosecutor.
Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove did not disclose Valerie Plame's name, a point that Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, called a distinction without a difference.
"The fact that he didn't give her name, but identified the ambassador's wife ... doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who that is," Biden said on CNN's "Inside Politics." "If that occurred, at a minimum, that was incredibly bad judgment, warranting him being asked to leave."
In September and October 2003, McClellan said he had spoken to Rove about the Plame matter and that Rove wasn't involved in the leak. On Tuesday, McClellan refused for a second day to discuss the White House denials of two years ago, saying that to do so would impinge on the ongoing criminal investigation of the leak.
Bush said last year he would fire anyone found to have leaked Plame's name. Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, said it's time for Rove to leave.
White House allies weighed in, with expressions of support for Rove from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania.
Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman said Rove was the victim of partisan political attacks by Democrats.
An e-mail by Cooper that surfaced over the weekend in Newsweek magazine said Rove spoke of the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson as being someone who apparently works at the CIA and who arranged a trip for her husband to Africa.
Cooper's e-mail said Rove warned him away from the idea that Wilson's trip had been authorized by CIA Director George Tenet or Vice President Dick Cheney.
The RNC chairman said Rove "was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise."
Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Plame's husband suggested in a New York Times op-ed piece that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Eight days after the op-ed piece, Plame's name and her connection to the CIA first appeared in a newspaper column by Robert Novak.
The column said two administration officials told Novak that Wilson's wife had suggested sending him to investigate whether Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger. Cooper's byline appeared on an article a few days later naming Plame.