Roving Up

Once again, the work bug surfaced, which took up a good bit of the afternoon--although I'm quite happy to see that the Rove story has legs...to be precise, six or eight, depending on whether you think Karl more closely resembles a roach or a banana spider (apologies to banana spiders, who are actually quite amazing creatures. Over at my mom's house they'll build these remarkable, six to eight foot webs)...

Anyway, I digress. Let's see...Billmon notes the thick-enough-to-cut-with-a-meat-cleaver irony in today's, um, leaks purporting to tell Rove's side of the story...or, given the circumstances, the latest version of Karl Rove's increasingly desperate attempts to find a defensible explanation for his actions. I believe the version being spun now is that Bob Novak called Karl, not the other way around, and their collective grunts convinced the former to publish using the latter as a secondary source...too bad that, for Karl, it matters not one whit. Keeping with the same source (some guy out of Philadelphia who calls himself Atrios), there's the small matter of these latest stories contradicting last week's version of events. Then there's the additional rumor swirling about that Judith Miller was the original source for matters Plame--the link is from John at AmericaBlog--the piece says that Novak basically ratted her out...rats ratting out fellow rats, I guess...Aravosis also cites a NY Daily News story that adds a third rat to the mix--a rat named Ari. Hmmm.

Note: regular visitors here might recall my own post, citing Al Cockburn and Jeff St. Clair offering the same theory re: Judith Miller...on the other hand, Billmon points out that Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media has the same theory. Ouch.

Still, I think this makes some sense. Miller and her fellow neocon screech machine were adament about the existence of Iraqi WMD's. And, most folks reading this are aware of both Rove's modus operandi ("fuck them like no one..., etc.") as well as Miller's own methods...then, there's this interesting item, indicating apparent contact between Miller and someone in the White House at just around the time they decided to put Joe Wilson and his wife to the question...it's not all that difficult to imagine Ms. Miller (once again) going a bit beyond journalism (finally, anyone recall Miller hissing her defense on the WMD story? "I was proved fucking right." Sounds to me like she and Rove are at least on the same plane, metaphorically speaking).

Well, it all makes for interesting speculation, even as the ultimate fruit resulting from the labors of Karl, Bob, Judith, Dubya, Dick, etc., has turned out to be quite sour and worm infested. And, whether or not there IS any "controlling legal authority," (remember that phrase? oh, the link is to Charles Krauthammer--gag--although, as an aside, it's a useful reminder of what does and doesn't bother the Krautster: questionable fundraising? Oh, the humanity! Putting politics above national security, lying your way into a war that's killed thousands? Yawn.)--anyway, one thing's certain: controlling legal authority or not, the evidence is QUITE clear that Karl Rove is at least one individual who sees ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with putting politics above matters of national security--nor does he find anything wrong with destroying the careers of any number of people (recall, Plame's cover was that she was an employee of Brewster Jennings and Associates. Thanks to Rove, and whoever else outed Plame, ALL the people associated with the firm, either directly or indirectly, have had their cover blown). Whether or not Karl can parse out a LEGAL defense in this matter is one thing. But there's no doubt that Karl Rove is certainly a sleazy individual--even by the pretty low standards of political operatives.