Sorry, Misleading Americans Isn't Necessarily Illegal
Rove's lawyer says Rove will not be indicted. Here's an article from Forbes that has an interesting take of the situation in the first five paragraphs:
That Karl Rove still works at the White House speaks volumes about the values of George W. Bush.
Here's some points to keep in mind:
1. a) Joe Wilson began letting it be known in the spring of 2003 that the Niger/Iraq uranium connection that Bush alluded to in his 2003 State of the Union Address was highly misleading. b) The White House and Cheney's office became aware of what Joe Wilson was privately saying to reporters. c) Anxious about the political effect of being found out about the many misleading statements that had been made about Iraq (and there were many) and the fact that no WMDs worthy of the name were being found, the White House and Cheney's office started considering what to do about Wilson and gathered some information on him. d) Even before Joe Wilson's article appeared in the New York Times, a campaign to smear Joe Wilson had begun. e) In June and July of 2003, Valerie Plame's identity was revealed several times to reporters before Robert Novak's column revealed her identity to the world.
2. Patrick Fitzgerald was clear in his October 2005 press conference about what he was prosecuting. a) He was not prosecuting the outing of Valerie Plame, largely because the investigation was unable to get to the bottom of the story. b) It should be pointed out that he was not prosecuting the smearing of Joe Wilson. c) He was not investigating in any way the truth about WMDs. e) Fitzgerald was prosecuting Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice; these refer to things that Libby did during the investigation.
3. People in politics are usually not prosecuted for smearing people. Only on a rare occassion is a public official held legally accountable for smearing another politician, a government official or even a private citizen. Joseph McCarthy was able to smear people for years during the late forties and fifties without consequences. It took Edward R. Murrow, lawyers for the U.S. Army and a Senate censure before McCarthy's behavior was called to account but he was never held accountable in a meaningful legal sense. Karl Rove has always understood the legal issues around smearing and he has good lawyers.
4. Let's circle back once again: Joe Wilson was smeared. Sophisticated smears require a method of disseminating information (preferably without being too obvious), teamwork, multiple stories and multiple deniability. If CIA operative Valerie Plame had not been outed, this would have been just one more smear operation by the Bush machine. The tool in this particular smear was information about Valerie Plame. One person, Scooter Libby, is unlikely to have conducted on his own such an extensive smear (it took at least three weeks to get someone to bite on the smear and write an article). It is logical to assume that others knew that Valerie Plame was covert when they started smearing Joe Wilson. I have no idea if the White House is still involved in the smear, or if it is, how much, but the smear, having taken on a life of its own in other venues, is still going on with new permutations, the most obvious and persistent one being that Valerie Plame wasn't really that covert. If Valerie Plame had not been covert at the time, the CIA would not have insisted on an investigation and John Ashcroft would not have ordered an investigation.
5. Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be a good man who knows how to do his job. But there's nothing perfect about justice in this world. There are innocent people who get hanged. There are guilty people who walk because there wasn't quite enough evidence and they had very good lawyers. Sometimes the truth is buried under so many lies, legal accountability simply does not happen.
The decision not to charge Karl Rove shows there often are no consequences for misleading the public.
In 2003, while Rove allowed the White House to tell the news media that he had no role in leaking Valerie Plame's CIA identity, the presidential aide was secretly telling the FBI the truth.
It's now known that Rove had discussed Plame's CIA employment with conservative columnist Robert Novak, who exposed her identity less than a week later, citing two unidentified senior administration officials.
Rove's truth-telling to the FBI saved him from indictment.
And by misleading reporters, the White House saved itself from a political liability during the 2004 presidential campaign.
That Karl Rove still works at the White House speaks volumes about the values of George W. Bush.
Here's some points to keep in mind:
1. a) Joe Wilson began letting it be known in the spring of 2003 that the Niger/Iraq uranium connection that Bush alluded to in his 2003 State of the Union Address was highly misleading. b) The White House and Cheney's office became aware of what Joe Wilson was privately saying to reporters. c) Anxious about the political effect of being found out about the many misleading statements that had been made about Iraq (and there were many) and the fact that no WMDs worthy of the name were being found, the White House and Cheney's office started considering what to do about Wilson and gathered some information on him. d) Even before Joe Wilson's article appeared in the New York Times, a campaign to smear Joe Wilson had begun. e) In June and July of 2003, Valerie Plame's identity was revealed several times to reporters before Robert Novak's column revealed her identity to the world.
2. Patrick Fitzgerald was clear in his October 2005 press conference about what he was prosecuting. a) He was not prosecuting the outing of Valerie Plame, largely because the investigation was unable to get to the bottom of the story. b) It should be pointed out that he was not prosecuting the smearing of Joe Wilson. c) He was not investigating in any way the truth about WMDs. e) Fitzgerald was prosecuting Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice; these refer to things that Libby did during the investigation.
3. People in politics are usually not prosecuted for smearing people. Only on a rare occassion is a public official held legally accountable for smearing another politician, a government official or even a private citizen. Joseph McCarthy was able to smear people for years during the late forties and fifties without consequences. It took Edward R. Murrow, lawyers for the U.S. Army and a Senate censure before McCarthy's behavior was called to account but he was never held accountable in a meaningful legal sense. Karl Rove has always understood the legal issues around smearing and he has good lawyers.
4. Let's circle back once again: Joe Wilson was smeared. Sophisticated smears require a method of disseminating information (preferably without being too obvious), teamwork, multiple stories and multiple deniability. If CIA operative Valerie Plame had not been outed, this would have been just one more smear operation by the Bush machine. The tool in this particular smear was information about Valerie Plame. One person, Scooter Libby, is unlikely to have conducted on his own such an extensive smear (it took at least three weeks to get someone to bite on the smear and write an article). It is logical to assume that others knew that Valerie Plame was covert when they started smearing Joe Wilson. I have no idea if the White House is still involved in the smear, or if it is, how much, but the smear, having taken on a life of its own in other venues, is still going on with new permutations, the most obvious and persistent one being that Valerie Plame wasn't really that covert. If Valerie Plame had not been covert at the time, the CIA would not have insisted on an investigation and John Ashcroft would not have ordered an investigation.
5. Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be a good man who knows how to do his job. But there's nothing perfect about justice in this world. There are innocent people who get hanged. There are guilty people who walk because there wasn't quite enough evidence and they had very good lawyers. Sometimes the truth is buried under so many lies, legal accountability simply does not happen.
posted by Craig at 1:33 PM
1 Comments:
"That Karl Rove still works at the White House speaks volumes about the values of George W. Bush."
That Rove got to work for George W. Bush at all speaks volumes about our Fearless Leader.
I seem to recall Rove was drummed out of Bush 41's organization for being an overly ambitious sleaze. Rightly so, because even before he went to work for George W., Rove had already earned himself a bad reputation the old-fashioned way — by screwing up and screwing over others a few too many times in artless ways that backfired.
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