Democrats Call for Rove to Come Clean or Resign

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/070605A.shtml

 

 

Democrats Call for Rove to Come Clean or Resign     t r u t h o u t | Letter     Wednesday 06 July 2005 The following letter is being circulated By Rep. John Conyers Jr. to other House Democrats for signatures. The letter will be sent to the White House on Thursday July 7th.     07 July 2005     The President     The White House     Washington, DC     Dear Mr. President:     We write in order to urge that you require your Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, to either come forward immediately to explain his role in the Valerie Plame matter or to resign from your Administration.     Notwithstanding whether Mr. Rove intentionally violated the law in leaking information concerning former CIA operative Valerie Plame, we believe it is not tenable to maintain Mr. Rove as one of your most important advisors unless he is willing to explain his central role in using the power and authority of your Administration to disseminate information regarding Ms. Plame and to undermine her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson.     We now know that e-mails recently turned over by Time, Inc. between writer Matthew Cooper and Time editors reveal that one of Mr. Cooper's principal sources in the Plame matter was Mr. Rove. This has been confirmed by Newsweek and two lawyers representing witnesses involved in the investigation. Mr. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, also has confirmed that Mr. Rove was interviewed by Mr. Cooper in connection with a possible article about Ms. Plame three or four days before Robert Novak wrote a column outing Ms. Plame as a CIA operative.     We also know that Mr. Rove told Chris Matthews that Ambassador Wilson's wife and her undercover status were "fair game." A White House source also appears to have previously acknowledged that Mr. Rove contacted Mr. Matthews and other journalists, indicating that "it was reasonable to discuss who sent Wilson to Niger."     The above facts appear to be directly inconsistent with previous statements by you and representatives of your Administration concerning leaking in general and the Plame case in particular. For example, on September 30, 2003, you stated "there's just too many leaks [in Washington]. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is." You also stated "I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business." On October 10, 2003, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was asked if Mr. Rove or two other aides in your Administration had ever discussed the Plame matter with any reporter, and he stated he had spoken to Mr. Rove and the others and "they assured me that they were not involved in this."     Regardless of whether these actions violate the law - including specific laws against the disclosure of classified information as well as broader laws against obstruction of justice, the negligent distribution of defense information, and obligating reporting of press leaks to proper authorities - they seem to reveal a course of conduct designed to threaten and intimidate those who provide information critical of your Administration, such as Ambassador Wilson.     We hope you agree with us that such behavior should never be tolerated by any Administration. While it is acceptable for a private citizen to use every legal tool at his or her disposal to protect himself against legal liability, high-ranking members of your Administration who are involved in any effort to smear a private citizen or to disseminate information regarding a CIA operative should be expected to meet a far higher standard of ethical behavior and forthrightness. This is why we believe it is so important that Mr. Rove publicly and fully explain his role in this matter.     Sincerely,

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Fw: Karl Rove: Using Reporters--and Abusing the First Amendment By Bill Israel

 

----- Original Message -----

From: rainbow7

To: rainbow7

Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 4:06 PM

Subject: Karl Rove: Using Reporters--and Abusing the First Amendment

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Karl Rove: Using Reporters--and Abusing the First Amendment
A man who taught with Karl Rove, and considers him a friend, writes that in the Valerie Plame case, Rove is using journalists, and the First Amendment, "to operate without constraint, or to camouflage breaking the law." That's why neither reporters Cooper and Miller, nor their publications, should protect the behavior of Rove (or anyone else) "through an undiscerning, blanket use of the First Amendment that weaken its protections by its gross misuse."

By Bill Israel

(July 05, 2005) -- In 99.9 percent of cases I know, journalists must not break the bonds of appropriate confidentiality, to protect their ability to report, and to defend the First Amendment. I’ve testified in court to that end, and would do so again.

But the Valerie Plame-CIA case that threatens jail time for reporters from Time and The New York Times this week is the exception that shatters the rule. In this case, journalists as a community have been played for patsies by the president’s chief strategist, Karl Rove, and are enabling him to abuse the First Amendment, by their invoking it.

To understand why this case is exceptional, one must grasp the extent of Rove’s political mastery, which became clearer to me by working with him. When we taught "Politics and the Press" together at The University of Texas at Austin seven years ago, Rove showed an amazing disdain for Texas political reporters. At the same time, he actively cultivated national reporters who could help him promote a Bush presidency.

In teaching with him, I learned Rove assumes command over any political enterprise he engages. He insists on absolute discipline from staff: nothing escapes him; no one who works with him moves without his direction. In Texas, though he was called "the prime minister" to Gov. George W. Bush, it might have been "Lord," as in the divine, for when it came to politics and policy, it was Rove who gave, and Rove who took away.

Little has changed since the Bush presidency; all roads still lead to Rove.

Consequently, when former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson challenged President Bush’s lie that Saddam Hussein imported yellow-cake uranium from Niger to produce nuclear weapons, retaliation by Rove was never in doubt. While it is reporters Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of The New York Times who now face jail time, the retaliation came through Rove-uber-outlet Robert Novak, who blew the cover of Wilson’s wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame.

The problem, as always, in dealing with Rove, is establishing a clear chain of culpability. Rove once described himself as a die-hard Nixonite; he is, like the former president, both student and master of plausible deniability. (This past weekend, in confirming that Rove was indeed a source for Matthew Cooper, Rove's lawyer said his client "never knowingly disclosed classified information.") That is precisely why prosecutor Fitzgerald in this case must document the pattern of Rove’s behavior, whether journalists published, or not.

For in this case, Rove, improving on Macchiavelli, has bet that reporters won’t rat their relationship with the administration’s most important political source. How better for him to operate without constraint, or to camouflage breaking the law, than under the cover of journalists and journalism, protected by the First Amendment?

Karl Rove is in my experience with him the brightest and most affable of companions; perhaps I have been coopted, for I genuinely treasure his friendship. But neither charm nor political power should be permitted to subvert the First Amendment, which is intended to insure that reporters and citizens burrow fully and publicly into government, not insulate its players from felony, or reality.

Reporters with a gut fear of breaching confidential sources must fight like tigers to protect them. But neither reporters Cooper nor Miller, nor their publications, nor anyone in journalism should protect the behavior of Rove (or anyone else) through an undiscerning, blanket use of the First Amendment that weakens its protections by its gross misuse.

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Bill Israel teaches journalism at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). He has worked for several leading newpapers.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000973352
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Revenge has no place in politics
by serena

Karl Rove is one of the most powerful men in the nation at the moment, but he is mendacious, divisive, revengeful and is out to win at any cost. Rove champions politics over policy. He controls just about every aspect of domestic policy; cheney and rummy, who go way back, control foreign policy. They have worked together for decades under several different administrations and both embrace the neoconservative ideology. But more than anything all 4 (bush, cheney, rummy & rove) govern by favouring big business at the expense of the public. Ethics seem to be of little import to these guys.

Rove plays down and dirty. Interestingly enough his name will be newsworthy this week in conjunction with the Valerie Plame investigation. Her husband, Joe Wilson was sent to Niger to verify whether Saddam tried to acquire yellow cake uranium. Wilson discovered, as suspected, the documents were forgeries. Even tho bush was warned not to include that information in his SOTU address since it was bogus, bush went ahead and did so anyhow. Thus with good conscience Wilson wrote an op-ed in the NYTimes exposing the  documents were forgeries and that saddam did not attempt to purchase the yellowcake uranium from Niger. This was a terrible embarrassment for the bush administration.

Naturally this did not sit right with them. So in an attempt to discredit Wilson, someone ousted his wife Valerie Plame who was at the time -- until her cover was blown -- a covert CIA agent working on WMD. One suspect is karl rove. Whether he is the actual leaker is uncertain at this point. But noteworthy is cheney and bush both hired separate outside council -- criminal attorneys -- which is highly irregular for a president and a vice-president because they have WH council.

Question is who told Rove? Rove admits he told several journalists Valerie was fair game, but claims he only did so after her name appeared in Robert Novak's column-- talk about revenge! Novak, columnist and an avid bush supporter, asserts he did not know Valerie Plame was an undercover agent for the CIA, but only that she worked for the CIA. Even after the CIA asked him not to print her name in his column he did so anyhow. Rove's attorney contends Rove allegedly did not "knowingly" oust anyone.

Rove may have committed perjury, possibly treason if he is found guilty. Whomever ousted Valerie did so, it is suspected, to settle a score. Moreover in doing so it put her life at risk, other agents and informants lives at risk, and put our nation in a vulnerable position.

Karl Rove by all measures is a genius at politics, but his style and lack of ethics leaves the country wanting. 

"When Rove and Gov. Bush stepped onto the national stage in 2000, they had a big list of supporters, money and infrastructure that had been systems-checked in Texas. And they would use it to win by any means necessary and not fret over the ethics."
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