12
Jul
Operation ‘Turd Blossom’ continues: The press go nuts
Karl Rove leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent and the White House press are furious. But not at Rove; it’s press secretary Scott McClellan’s blood they want.
In April of 2001, Time Magazine published a profile of senior White House official Karl Rove. It revealed that at the end of the president’s first 100 days in office, Rove was focused on purging the public memory of Mr. Bush’s anti-environmental policies as Texas governor and his pro-pollution acts as president.
“Bush abandoned a campaign pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, rejected the Kyoto global-warming treaty, suspended new arsenic standards for drinking water — and began to look suspiciously like the eco-villain Al Gore warned us about”.
Those were the good old days, when arsenic in drinking water seemed like a big deal.
The story also revealed that the new president had not one but two nicknames for the man sometimes referred to as “Bush’s Brain.” The first and more widely known nickname is “Boy Genius.” The second is “Turd Blossom.”
For years, Rove has enjoyed almost universally positive coverage from the White House and national press. “Yes,” they said, “he’s an amoral creature who will stoop as low as it takes to get his job done, but he has a great sense of humor, he’ll dish the dirt on anyone and he’s a winner! And besides, he scares us half to death.”
It wasn’t as if no one knew about Rove’s thuggish tendencies; in a story for Atlantic Monthly, Joshua Green detailed some of Rove’s more memorable exploits and remarked, “Having studied what happens when Karl Rove is cornered, I came away with two overriding impressions. One was a new appreciation for his mastery of campaigning. The other was astonishment at the degree to which, despite all that’s been written about him, Rove’s fiercest tendencies have been elided in national media coverage.”
‘Boy Genius’ was ascendant, and for the most part ‘Turd Blossom’ was nowhere to be found outside the bitter hearts of Rove’s beaten and bloodied opponents. But these days, ‘Turd Blossom’ stands front and center and the White House press corps are baying at the scent of blood.
The thing is, it isn’t Rove’s blood they’re after: It’s White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s. For two successive days, the White House press briefings have included vicious assaults on McClellan, primarily centered around his assurances from two years ago, when CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name was leaked by White House officials and made public by Bob Novak, that neither Rove nor Cheney advisor Scooter Libby nor National Security Council member Elliott Abrams had anything to do with the leak.
Today, McClellan felt he had to defend his character, saying, “I think you all in this room know me very well. And you know the type of person that I am. You, and many others in this room, have dealt with me for quite some time. The President is a very straightforward and plainspoken person, and I’m someone who believes in dealing in a very straightforward way with you all, as well, and that’s what I’ve worked to do.”
The comment was in response to a series of questions relating to McClellan’s comments about Rove from two years ago. In one revealing moment, McClellan seemed to say that Rove had lied to him about his non-involvement in the leak.
Q Scott, this was a statement you made, on the record, 21-months ago. You very confidently asserted to us and to the American people that Rove told you he had nothing to do with it. Can you stand by that statement now?MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, and I responded to these questions yesterday.
So McClellan has no problem insisting that he accurately conveyed what Rove told him with respect to the leak. If we can get BTC News White House correspondent Eric Brewer back into the press room this week, perhaps he’ll have an opportunity to ask Scott if it isn’t somewhat annoying to have been lied to by Karl Rove. Meanwhile, though, Eric took the opportunity today to follow up on his report on US terrorism statistics.
(Read the exchange, and see if it doesn’t translate to “You can tell we’re doing a good job fighting terrorism because there are so many more acts of terrorism today.)
What has been lacking in the press pursuit of the Rove situation is any reference to the quality of Rove’s behavior. In today’s briefing, one reporter broached that subject.
But I just have one final question on this. The question of whether a law has been broken, a crime committed, is a separate matter. You’re not going to resolve that; that’s for a grand jury to decide. But we know what the facts are. We know that Karl Rove spoke about Joseph Wilson’s wife, referring to the fact that she worked at the Agency. You’ve heard Democrats who say that — say today that alone was inappropriate conduct. What was Karl Rove trying to accomplish by having the conversation he did? And does the President think that it was fair of him to do that? Was it fair game?MR. McCLELLAN: Now, that’s a question related to an ongoing investigation. The investigation continues, David. I think you know that very well. I’ve responded to that question. And if I were to start commenting on news reports or things related to the investigation, I’m getting into prejudging the outcome of that investigation. I don’t want to do that from this podium. Let’s let the investigation take place, and let’s let the investigators bring all the facts together and draw the conclusions that they draw, and then we will know the facts at that point.
Q But, Scott, there’s a difference between what’s legal and what’s right. Is what Karl Rove did right?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I mean, you can state the obvious. I understand and appreciate that, and I appreciate you all.
Of course it isn’t only Democrats who are raising the question of whether it’s appropriate to leak a CIA agent’s identity in order to rough up her husband for criticizing the administration, but that the national press are beginning to insert that consideration into their questions suggests that their fondness for Rove’s lack of a lower behavioral threshold is beginning to wear off.
Meanwhile, McClellan will continue to bear the brunt of the press’s displeasure, at least until indictments are or aren’t handed out. And until that time he’s required to tell the press, as he did repeatedly today, that Rove enjoys the full confidence of the president, a matter which will, when Rove is fired or resigns, arise again in the context of why the administration were so dogged in their support of him well after it became clear that he had committed what both McClellan and the president had labeled a firing offense.
Whatever the outcome, it appears the press are determined for now to make sure that ‘Turd Blossom’ sticks to the bottom of someone’s shoes in the White House.
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Watergate stuck because the wrong ox was gored: the Democrats, at the time, had some spine. Since Reagan, nothing has stuck, no crime, no slime, no treason. Do you think that Rove is hated enough, is entertaining enough, for his troubles to have some real effect? That’s a real question, but I doubt it. He’ll be maklng millions on the talk trail with Ollie North. One real possibility is that Bush will let him go, and then will be at a total loss for ideas. GW may even imagine that he can think and talk for himself. Cheney will have his hands full.
July 12th, 2005 at 2:09 pmMost of us believe that Karl Rove is a patriot, unlike the jackasses in the media and the socialists / progressives / social democrats / liberals who are braying for his ouster. Bush will keep Rove as a valuable advisor while these fools knash their teeth (difficult for toothless warriors). Moreover, Rove will successfully manage the 2006 Congressional campaign and the next presidential campaign.
July 12th, 2005 at 2:27 pmWhy are they all dumping on poor McClellan? He’s just a water carrier who is specifically employed to do that unlike the reporters harassing him who have been carrying water for a long time. Why not dump on Rove, Cheney and Bush who are the real villains? You mean access will be denied? You need to preserve access to be a shill conduit?
July 12th, 2005 at 2:53 pmMarshall, I’m sure it’s very irritating to hear people pooping all over Turd Blossom. What I don’t understand is why you think he’s a patriot. It isn’t as though he’s done anything but get elected a bunch of people who are increasingly viewed as incompetent and untruthful.
Jack, they’re pissed off at Scotty because they’re too sophisticated to be pissed off at the administration, who are after all just engaging in a routine coverup and smear campaign. McClellan, on the other hand, is taking his though the looking glass routine to such an extreme that it has finally dawned on the press corpse that they’re being treated as idiots. So it really doesn’t have so much to do with what happened — although they are excited by the scent of blood — as it does with them feeling personally offended.
They’ve been simmering for a while, and Rove just turned them up to boil.
July 12th, 2005 at 3:18 pm“Marshall”, is the RNC employing people to stand up for Rove? Rove loves polls, have you seen ‘em? 90 % of people want him thrown out.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:06 pmOf course when a White House pays for stories, when they are in bed with reporters, you expect the paid riff raff to start blogging compliments. Balderdash. Rove is going down, and he’s taking Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Bumsfeld and the rest of the pirates with him.
What was done to Valerie Plame was over the line and is a case of politcs gone amuck. This entire mess is laid at the feet of a press corp who’ve gotten fat and bloated with their inside the beltway salaries and lifestyles. If the press actually did it’s job and dug in here with this story instead of letting a special prosecutor do it then maybe Rove would have been exposed long ago as a leaker. Rove, in the name of ethics, has to go and leave government.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:06 pmPeople should be concerened if not livid that some people still call Karl Rove a PATRIOT. Men who lie have no honor. I have friends in the military that are very upset with this whole ordeal right now. They swear oaths to uphold the constitution, a force of loyalty, to give their lives for it, and for honor.
A man and his boss (W) blatenley lies to the American people and the WORLD (or worse, they’re dumber than we thought), and side-steps every procedure and any evidence that the reasons, the justification, the evidence for war in Iraq was a farse.
Anybody who entitles these people as “PATRIOTS” should be ashamed of themselves. They are not only condoning lieing, but men in great positions of power to do good, who lie, and in the midst, thousands of lives have been lost, our nation’s reputation is in the toliet, and we are now consumed with the largest debt ever. Should I sob and say its all for a greater sacrifice (I don’t know what but maybe I will someday understand it)? Pray for my leaders to ask forgiveness of their sins they knowingly and willingly commit? I don’t think so.
You can have your patriots. We don’t want them.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:10 pm-AC
Inappropriate accusations: ‘Karl Rove leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent and the White House press are furious.’, due to the fact the source was not an undercover agent but was rather an anonymous source… two different animals, if you will… And Karl Rove was trying to do someone a favor, giving them a heads-up innacuracies were about to be printed.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:11 pmCarl Rowe is just a slime ball like Bush, Chaney and the rest of their “gang.” The problem is that the American people seem to ignore their faults, i. e. Iraq, deficit busting, alliance with the religious right who boarder on fascists, and corporate America, all of which are helping support the right wing of the Republican Party. As someone said years ago: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” The trouble is that American democracy gets the shaft! The Right Wing complains about the Left Wing, and visa versa. The American people get a bad deal from both.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:13 pmIt’s late, but I can’t resist commenting on Marshall’s reply. Note his robotic, senseless, loyalty:
Rove is a patriot.
People who think he is bad are ‘jackasses’.
Nah, nah, nah!
Pretty much speaks for itself.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:15 pmThere is no doubt in my mind Karl Rove will be out of a job by the fall. Not that that’s going to change anything. The real question for Rove is if he can stay out of jail. Yes the demos are toothlees warriors, sure, but at the end of the day, Rove outed a US spy. In some places they call that treason–nobody wants to say that out loud, but that’s a bottom line. His hold card is that Dubya will pardon him before he leaves office. And if push comes to shove, guess which turd is going wind up smelling like a rose? So what’s all the fuss. It’s a kabuki, as the Japanese say.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:15 pmHumpty Dumpty had a cousin named Turd Blossom, who also sat on the wall and had a great fall. Well we all know the rest of the story.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:15 pmMarshall, when you say “most of us” who do you refer to? Most Germans thought they were free and patriotic in the ’30s prior to WWII. I would guess that “most of us” (since the country is so closely split) are probably fed up with the string of lies and coverups coming from the White House these past couple of years. WMDs, “Clean Air Act”, etc. …
July 12th, 2005 at 4:16 pmBTW, the word you seek is “gnash”…
Better toothless (wishful thinking) than ethic-less.
Michelle, making jokes solves everything doesn’t it? I hope you’re happy in your facist head.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:17 pmMy comment is about Judith Miller and the sanctimonious press ( i.e. NYTimes)that acts as if she were a whistleblower unearthing corruption . She was a water carrier for the administration. Remember her above the fold account of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. She was their whore but she did not kiss and tell.Another used woman. Men they’ll love you and leave you . Too bad. For that prison is too good for her.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:18 pmSomebody posted using my name. That’s really funny.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:20 pms. davidson, you’re getting your talking points mixed up. Rove was the anonymous source who revealed the CIA agent’s identity to Matt Cooper at Time Magazine. The CIA agent wasn’t a source for anyone. The WHite House said whoever was involved in the leak would be out of a job. Rove was involved in the leak.
Now, you’re supposed to be saying “everybody knew she was a CIA agent, Rove didn’t do anything illegal, Joe Wilson is a liar and molests small farm animals,” etc. etc.
But all that’s beside the point, which is, as everyone knows by now, that Bush and Scott McClellan said anyone who did what Rove did would be fired. And yet, astonishingly, he is not fired.
As for Plame’s status within the CIA, I’d say that regardless Ken Mehlman’s experience with being undercover, you gotta go with what the CIA says — and that’s that she was a covert operative.
July 12th, 2005 at 4:30 pmWeldon,
July 12th, 2005 at 4:44 pmI think you’re saying that the press has its knickers knotted because its gullibility for, lo, these many years, has been exposed. Did I get that right?
Jack: Yeah, that’s a good part of it. Plus Rove would have landed Cooper, who I gather is a popular guy among the press, in jail if Rove’s lawyer hadn’t inadvertently gotten Cooper so riled up that he decided to blow the whistle, and he did land Judith Miller, who probably isn’t all that popular, in jail. Either way, it’s all about the insults to the press corps and not what Rove actually did.
July 12th, 2005 at 5:02 pmThere are only three possibilities for President Bush and Carl Rove. Either Carl Rove lied to the President when the President asked Mr. Rove if he outed a CIA operative and yet the President keeps him on, or the President never asked Mr. Rove even though the President claimed to have asked every one in the White House and even though the President’s men have asserted for two years that Mr. Rove did nothing wrong, or finally, the President has known all along that Mr. Rove revealed the identity of a CIA operative and has pretended otherwise. The Presidential outcomes of these possibilities are rather grim. Either the President tolerates liars in his inner circle, or covers up for and accommodates liars with a new application of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, or the President is a liar and coconspirator. Not a very appetizing list to choose from is it?
July 12th, 2005 at 11:33 pmNot surprisingly, I agree with you, Weldon. I made a similar comment about this press brouhaha here. Mr. Rove lied to Mr. McClelland, and Mr. McClelland merely relayed Mr. Rove’s false statements accurately to the press. I find it difficult to believe that Mr. McClelland conspired with Mr. Rove to lie so flatly to the press; Mr. McClelland cannot possibly be that stupid.
Unlike Mr. Rove’s other spin or outright lies, however, this particular one is too transparent to ignore. It was caught on video tape, and because Mr. Rove can no longer deny his press leak without committing perjury or obstructing a criminal investigation, he has now admitted that he leaked the information. His defense that he did not actually mention Ms. Plame’s name but simply referred to her as Joe Wilson’s wife reminds me of Bill Clinton’s infamous defense that he did not commit perjury (because it depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is). That sort og legalism does not obviate Mr. Rove’s previous deception. He has clearly embarrassed his boss and his party. Ah, well, live by the lie, die by the lie . . .
July 13th, 2005 at 11:14 amRove must go and immeadiately. He’s violated every decent principle that is the core of our existence in this democratic society (small “d” not big “D”) which is that their is a sense of greater concern for the whole not just it’s parts.
Someone on CNN said that there may very well be a lot more to the story than we know as in more evidence on the leak and who did what. So be it. The truth must come out and Rove must go.
July 13th, 2005 at 12:48 pmI didn’t write in number 22 either. Some comedian is afraid to disclose their true identity as being an anonymous jerk.
Here’s what your best friend’s daddy, former president George H.W. Bush said about that kind of crime: “Even though I’m a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.” That’s from a speech on April 26, 1999.
I didn’t say it. He did. Generational contradictions are a bitch aren’t they?
July 13th, 2005 at 1:54 pmhttp://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/chapters/15/subchapters/iv/sections/section_421.html
July 13th, 2005 at 3:21 pmThe mainstream White House Press Corps crack me up! For years they have been afraid, yes spinelessly cowering, to maintain any pressure on teh White House to be accountable for anything. But now they got their dander up. Why now? It seems that the problem isn’t that the White House lied to the world, the problem is that they feel betrayed by Scotty. Well good for you White House Press! Get vindication for your honor! And after your done, see if you could follow up on the economy, WMD, and the failure of the Bush agenda for the other 250 million of us.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:21 am