EXCLUSIVE: In new book, Rove says he "agreed" with Novak that Joe Wilson was an "asshole"
In his forthcoming book, Fox News' Karl Rove writes that during his infamous July 2003 conversation with the late Robert Novak, Rove "agreed with Novak's assessment" that Joe Wilson was "pompous, self-centered, egotistical, and 'an asshole.' "
In Courage and Consequence -- which Media Matters for America obtained in advance of its March 9 release date -- Rove writes that shortly after agreeing with Novak that Wilson was "an asshole," Rove confirmed that he had "heard" that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. Days later, Novak published a syndicated column outing Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative.
From Page 328 of Karl Rove's Courage and Consequence:
But Novak had turned our conversation to Joe Wilson's op-ed after discussing Townsend. He'd met Wilson in the green room at Meet the Press the previous Sunday morning and said he found Wilson pompous, self-centered, egotistical, and "an asshole." Having watched Wilson on Meet the Press, I agreed with Novak's assessment.
Pot.
Kettle.
Black.
"And what we have when someone charges obstruction of justice, the umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. He’s trying to figure what happened and somebody blocked their view.
As you sit here now, if you’re asking me what his motives were, I can’t tell you; we haven’t charged it.
So what you were saying is the harm in an obstruction investigation is it prevents us from making the fine judgments we want to make."
http://firedoglake.com/2006/04/06/grifting-your-own-administration/
and as i pointed out, those "numerous treks" to the grand jury involved rove changing his testimony to fit what the reporters said. which happened because a friendly reporter called rove's lawyer and gave him the details on what was being asked. libby had also met with judith miller of the new york times and given her plame's name and asked her to conceal his identity by saying he was a "hill staffer", which he had been but was not anymore. why the prosecutor did not indict both of them on charges of leaking her name is something only he can explain. i asked you if you agreed with the fact that rove and libby engaged in a plan to out plame to the press. Agree?
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Outing a CIA agent is treason. Rove participated in the outing of a CIA agent to reporters. Ergo, he committed treason. It's really quite simple.
And the reason Rove wasn't indicted was in part because all the players in this evil game lied to cover their collective a**es.
Wilson was never "quoted as having 'outed' her employment." Never. Whomever told you that is lying.
A quick look at the WSJ archives turns up the following about her status being known:
Joe Wilson's 'Secret' Wife
As we noted yesterday, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby does not allege that Valerie Plame, the long-suffering wife of Bush-hating egomaniac Joe Wilson, was a covert CIA agent. It does, however, claim that Plame's "employment status was classified" and that before July 14, 2003, when her name appeared in a column by Robert Novak, her "affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community."
We guess that depends what you mean by "common." It seems that at least two journalists knew that Plame worked for the CIA long before the kerfuffle that bears her name was a gleam in the eye of Angry Leftists. From the New York Sun, July 6, 2005:
Among the letters submitted by [Time's Matt] Cooper [to the judge considering whether to compel his testimony] was one from a former Time White House correspondent, Hugh Sidey. "In this case it seems to me the protection of a source transcends the other considerations,which do not seem to threaten national security," he wrote.
Mr. Sidey said in an interview that the identity of the CIA operative, Ms. Plame, was widely known--well before Mr. Cooper talked to his sources. "You know this game as well as I do," Mr. Sidey said. "That name was knocking around in the sub rosa world we live in for a long time."
And this is an exchange between host Alan Murray and guest Andrea Mitchell on CNBC's now-defunct "Capital Report," Oct. 3, 2003 (transcript not available publicly online):
Murray: Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA?
Mitchell: It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn't aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.
In fact, Novak did not report that she was covert; Fitzgerald did not allege it; and the factual assertions Joe Wilson makes in his own book, if accurate, prove that she was not. It's further evidence that this "scandal" is about nothing, and that Libby's indictment--even if he turns out to be guilty--is a tragedy.
Especially since she was working on nuclear non-proliferation in Iran and her shell company had to be shut down and everyone else who worked for that company was put at risk.
You are incorrect about your assessment of what the prosecutor had access to . . . Scooter Libby's lies tainted any knowledge that the prosecutor may have had access to. That's why Libby was charged and was convicted of lying to federal agents and obstruction of justice. His LIES, probably instructed from the office of the VP, tainted the case.
You need to read up on this case from actual court documents instead of relying on your obviously biased and dishonest sources.
You might want to look at facts and not rely on talking points, so much. Makes you look uninformed.
But now that my memory is refreshed, what a load of self-serving cr@p. Clearly these dirtbags are still worried about being called to account for this crime. Here's hoping their worries come true before too long.
I should have known he was talking about the other Joe Wilson, who is not an assh0le.
It's been a long day.
Rove agreed with Novak that Wilson was an a-hole...
Is this somehow shocking?
I'm pretty sure that term is thrown around a lot in political circles. What's the big deal here?
In the pages above Rove is giving us the image of two guys sitting around, shooting the sh**. He then does a bit of wordplay gymnastics when he mentions Novak bringing up Valerie Plame that seems to be saying, oh sure, I sort of confirmed the information that outed her as a CIA operative, but I really didn't mean to.
It's an all too familiar plot. "Yeah, I outed her, but I really didn't mean to. And hey, Wilson's an a$$hole anyway." A variation on the, "Yeah, we invaded Iraq for no justifiable reasons, but we really, really thought they had WMD. And hey, isn't the world a better place without that a$$hole Saddam?"
Rove may think the locker room talk somehow defends his deeds. Many others might take issue with this.
And therefore if what Rove wrote is false, as are so many of his other assertions in this book, we will know .....?
After sharing their mutual venom concerning Wilson, Rove recalls Novak bringing up Plame's CIA status. Rove then quotes Novak as quoting Rove as saying, "Oh, you know that, too," (that's the wordplay gymnastics I was talking about). Rove then says he remembers himself saying, "I've heard that, too."
Novak always said he only revealed Plame as being a CIA operative after he had confirmed it with two highly placed source. Rove is basically saying, yeah, I was one of those sources, but I really didn't mean to be.
The only "politics" that Karl Rove has are his own.
Rove is slime, pure and simple. He cares nothing about this country, just Karl Rove.