Within the space of a few days, Karl Rove has gone from being one of the most successfully vicious political operatives of all time to being a hapless angel on the verge of being flensed at the stake.

According to John Gibson of Fox News, Rove deserves a medal for burning Valerie Plame, if that’s what he did, which he didn’t. But if he did.

According to CNN’s Kyra Phillips, Rove is the victim of “a major smear campaign.”

According to Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove risked life, limb and reputation to warn an eager cub reporter away from former ambassador Joe Wilson, who is working hand in hand with Satan. And what thanks does he get?

According to this guy, Rove risked life, limb and reputation to warn an eager cub reporter away from former ambassador Joe Wilson, who is working hand in hand with Satan, and Rove didn’t burn Valerie plame but he should have, and her little dog too, and he’s the victim of a smear campaign.

Great minds think alike and all.

For a while someone was circulating the notion that Rove was a great American patriot, but that one didn’t get much traction because the followup question (“Why?”) was too tough.

Brad Friedman, proprietor of the Brad Blog, has Joe Wilson’s response to recent events.

Long-Dormant Instincts Surface in the Domestic Press

During a press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan offered up a rare direct response to one of the questions reporters were lobbing at him about the Rove Affair.

Q Well, you’re in a bad spot here, Scott, because after the investigation began, after the criminal investigation was underway, you said — October 10th, 2003, “I spoke with those individuals, Rove, Abrams and Libby, as I pointed out, those individuals assured me they were not involved in this.” From that podium. That’s after the criminal investigation began. Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that’s not a correct characterization Terry, and I think you are well aware of that. We know each other very well, and it was after that period that the investigators had requested that we not get into commenting on an ongoing criminal investigation. And we want to be helpful so that they can get to the bottom of this, because no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than the President of the United States. I am well aware of what was said previously. I remember well what was said previously. And at some point, I look forward to talking about it. But until the investigation is complete, I’m just not going to do that.

Q Do you recall when you were asked —

Q Wait, wait — so you’re now saying that after you cleared Rove and the others from that podium, then the prosecutors asked you not to speak anymore, and since then, you haven’t?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, you’re continuing to ask questions relating to an ongoing criminal investigation, and I’m just not going to respond any further.

Q When did they ask you to stop commenting on it, Scott? Can you peg down a date?

MR. McCLELLAN: Back at that time period.

The October 10, 2003, briefing that ABC’s White House correspondent Terry Moran refers to in that exchange came 10 days after the Justice Department announced its investigation into the leaks. Moran’s implication is that surely the investigators must already have told the White House to shut their collective yap — which McClellan said he would do, about three minutes before he confirmed that Rove, Elliott Abrams and Scooter Libby had nothing to do with the leak — but the investigation at that point was in the hands of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who didn’t recuse himself in favor of a special prosecutor for nearly another three months. So it’s entirely possible that no one at the top of the investigation was particularly concerned about White House interference until much later.

Still, it’s nice to see a reporter recognize and jump on an apparent contradiction, even if it took four years to regain the ability and motivation.

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