"Rove wasn’t just trying to intimidate Ambassador Wilson. If, as many believe, he is responsible for the leak, Rove wanted to send a message to everyone in the intelligence community that they all needed to keep their mouths shut. As the war was being sold, intelligence cooked, and the media spun, Rove and the White House had informed intelligence operatives and scientists that they were not to publicly repudiate the phony claims about aluminum tubes, which the White House falsely argued were part of an Iraqi gas centrifuge to make enriched uranium. One national reporter told me that calls to scientists and intelligence operatives to ask about the aluminum tubes, which turned out to be rocket bodies, yielded the confession the scientists and intelligence agents had been ordered to say nothing."
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/30_moore.html
September 30, 2003 CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES
The Truth is Puttin’ on its Shoes: An Inquiry Into the "Innocent" Mr. Rove
A BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
by James C. Moore, Co-Author of "Bush’s Brain," The
Political History of Karl Rove
"A lie can travel around the world
while the truth is just putting on its shoes."
Mark Twain
I am very tired of writing about Karl Rove. Lately,
though, I have felt a kind of moral obligation, and
almost a patriotic duty to remind people of the man
who really runs the White House. Politically, and
strategically, nothing has happened in the Bush
Administration without Rove’s imprimatur. Reporters
have discovered Rove’s steely control in the form of
what they call a "leak proof" White House. Nothing
comes out of the Bush White House without Rove’s
approval. Generally, that means nothing comes out of
the White House.
Until Karl Rove wants something to leak.
Rove’s temper has always been his weak spot. He cannot
seem to control his anger. When Ambassador Joseph
Wilson wrote in the New York Times that there was no
truth to the allegations that Iraq had tried to
purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger, Rove is said
to have gone "ballistic." No one who has known Rove
for any period of time doubts that Rove was the one
who orchestrated the leak, which "outed" Ambassador
Wilson’s wife as a CIA agent. Rove has always made
sure that his enemies knew he will strike back, and
swing with deadly power.
Rove wasn’t just trying to intimidate Ambassador
Wilson. If, as many believe, he is responsible for the
leak, Rove wanted to send a message to everyone in the
intelligence community that they all needed to keep
their mouths shut. As the war was being sold,
intelligence cooked, and the media spun, Rove and the
White House had informed intelligence operatives and
scientists that they were not to publicly repudiate
the phony claims about aluminum tubes, which the White
House falsely argued were part of an Iraqi gas
centrifuge to make enriched uranium. One national
reporter told me that calls to scientists and
intelligence operatives to ask about the aluminum
tubes, which turned out to be rocket bodies, yielded
the confession the scientists and intelligence agents
had been ordered to say nothing.
"We are not having this conversation," the reporter
was told.
But if he leaked Ambassador Wilson’s wife’s name, Rove
was clearly trying to tell everyone in the
intelligence community that they needed to toe the
line, or they might also end up living at risk. This,
of course, is a scurrilous, cowardly, and unpatriotic
act. To believe that Karl Rove had no knowledge of
this leak, or that he was not involved, it is
necessary to ignore his absolute control of all things
political in the White House, his Machiavellian
nature, and attention to every sparrow flying under
the Bush sun.
But how did it happen?
There are a few ways Rove might have planned to exact
his revenge. He could have made calls himself, to high
profile reporters, or ordered staffers and political
intermediaries to contact journalists with the
authorization that they were speaking for "senior
White House officials." Not surprisingly, "senior
White House official" is Rove’s nickname among many
reporters because Rove asks that the description be
used virtually every time he talks to a reporter. It
enables him to get out his perspective, and White
House spin, without giving away his identity, and
self-serving agenda. Historically, Rove has been very
adept at keeping a layer of denial, and other
operatives, between himself and his political
misdeeds. This means there is a strong possibility
that a lower-level staffer will end up taking the
blame for the leak.
In this case, though, there are some telltale signs
that Rove was still at the controls. Because Robert
Novak wrote the original story about Ambassador
Wilson’s wife, those of us who know how Rove has
leaked to Novak for years became immediately
suspicious. Novak has denied that "White House
officials called me with a leak." When this language
is parsed, it becomes clear that Rove may have managed
to get a tip to his friend Novak through an
intermediary, and then the columnist called Rove for
confirmation. According to the Washington Post, a half
dozen reporters got phone calls about the Ambassador’s
wife, and, yet, it was only Rove’s friend, Robert
Novak, who wrote a story. The rationale for the story,
a specious motivation, was that Ambassador Wilson got
the assignment to go to Niger because his wife was a
CIA agent, and she made the recommendation. Is that an
important enough piece of information to justify
blowing the cover of a CIA agent?
Rove’s relationship with Novak is widely known in the
Washington press corps. During the presidential
campaign, when the chorus of questions was being asked
about Mr. Bush, and the Texas Air National Guard,
reporters wanted to know where Mr. Bush went during
his time on assignment in Alabama. His commander said
the future president had never shown up for duty. Rove
told the campaign reporters that they were "making too
much of a few missed meetings." In 48 hours, the exact
language was used on network television by Novak, who
described the controversy of Mr. Bush’s missing years
as "a few missed meetings." Novak was not on the press
plane to hear Rove’s original comments.
An uncontrolled temper may be Rove’s only weakness as
a political counsel. In Ron Susskind’s Esquire
Magazine article on Rove, he described sitting outside
the presidential advisor’s White House office hearing
Rove scream into the phone, "Tell him we’ll f**k him.
We’ll f**k him like nobody ever has." During the
presidential campaign, Rove lost his cool in front of
a few hundred people on the tarmac in Manchester, New
Hampshire, as I stood and watched while Rove screamed
at my colleague Wayne Slater about an innocuous story
of mostly recycled information.
No one, though, knows Rove’s vindictiveness better
than John Weaver. Were it not for Karl Rove, Weaver
might still be a leading Republican political
consultant. In Texas, Rove and Weaver had been
successful partners, until Weaver chose to go out on
his own and build a client list. A few months later,
Weaver hired an employee away from Rove. Before too
long, as competition grew between Rove and Weaver,
disgusting rumors began to circulate about Weaver’s
personal life, and reporters and potential clients
wondered about Weaver’s judgment. The stories, which
many reporters have said originated with Rove, dried
up Weaver’s business, and he left Texas. Eventually,
Weaver became the lead political strategist to Senator
John McCain’s presidential campaign. After McCain lost
the bitter primary battle, Weaver discovered he was
squeezed out of party work by Rove, who was now in
charge of all things Republican. Weaver became a
Democrat, an advisor to the Democratic National
Committee, simply because Rove was never content to
leave him alone.
Similar stories are innumerable in Rove’s political
march to power. Anyone who has watched Rove’s rise in
presidential politics, and has reported on his
machinations, is not surprised to learn that
Ambassador Wilson suspects Rove as being the source of
the leak, or, as a minimum, a senior administration
official who condoned the leak. Washington reporters,
who have learned of Rove’s political discipline, are
also immediately suspicious of the presidential
advisor. It fits his historical pattern of behavior.
The circumstantial evidence is already in. And it
points at Karl Rove.
And if the Bush Administration is serious about
protecting this country, if Rove committed this
treasonous act, he needs to be prosecuted under the
Patriot Act he has so ardently supported.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
Also see the BuzzFlash interview with James Moore
about Rove and "Bush's Brain" [LINK]
BACK TO TOP
Articles in the BuzzFlash Contributor section are
posted as-is. Given the timeliness of some Contributor
articles, BuzzFlash cannot verify or guarantee the
accuracy of every word. We strive to correct
inaccuracies when they are brought to our attention.