Bush Shouldn't Fire Karl Rove

Bush Shouldn't Fire Karl Rove, From The Hill, By Dick Morris, Op-Ed, July 14, 2005

The "gotcha" game is in full swing in Washington as the vultures circle slowly over the White House, hoping for Karl Rove's scalp. ...

Karl Rove did nothing wrong. ...

The law is designed to stop the likes of Philip Agee, whose 1975 book Inside the Company revealed secret CIA information to sell books. Rove's actions are a far stretch from those the statute was designed to cover.

Rove did not call Time magazine's Matt Cooper. Cooper called him. He did not mention Valerie Plame's name. He may not have even known it. He had no intent to reveal her identity. The context of the conversation was that Rove was trying to disabuse Cooper of the impression that CIA Director George Tenet had been the moving force in choosing former Ambassador Joe Wilson to investigate the nuclear dealings reported to be going on in Niger.

Rove said that it was not Tenet who pushed the appointment but that it likely stemmed from the fact that Wilson's wife "apparently works" at the CIA.

To call that conversation a deliberate revelation of an agent's identity designed to blow her cover is a far, far stretch of the statute's wording and intent.

But just as Rove did not intend to blow Plame's cover, so the Democrats demanding his head are not very interested in upholding the statute in question. Their motives are totally political. They want revenge against Rove for his successful role in piloting the Bush election and reelection campaigns...

Washington is a mean town where human sacrifice has been raised to an art form. But Karl Rove does not deserve this fate. He has served loyally and well, resisting enormous opportunities to leave midway and reap a bonanza of income in the private sector. He has shown himself to be a man of uncommon integrity and selflessness in serving this administration and this country. He should not be tossed to the partisan wolves. ...

Source: Republican National Committee For Entire Article Please Visit: thehill.com/Comment/DickMorris/

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