Monday, July 11, 2005

NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG.

Well, that's that -- on Larry King Live, Bob Woodward shrugs off Plamegate:

KING: ... President Bush said a while back that if there was a leaker in the Judith Miller matter, he will be fired. What if it was Karl Rove?

WOODWARD: You know, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions on that at this point. I think that Rove obviously was talking about this. I have not seen any evidence that he really disclosed the identity of this CIA undercover operative who was married to Joe Wilson, who was the ambassador, former ambassador that they sent on this mission to look for some evidence that maybe Saddam was getting uranium from an African country. So you know, we'll have to let this play itself out....

KING: But the president did say he would fire, if it was connected with this case, whoever it was.

WOODWARD: Well, if it was connected with the illegal part of it. I mean, just talking about her and Joe Wilson, not having the knowledge that -- I think not too many people had the knowledge that she was an undercover operative or had once been one. At the time, she was -- you know, she -- her identity was protected, but she was working in headquarters, as an analyst. So, there's no -- in this case, there's no harm to national security. And her life certainly was not in danger, as best I can tell....

*****

WOODWARD: ... I haven't seen any evidence that -- there have been allegations, but no evidence -- that somebody did this in a malicious way. Joe Wilson, who -- whose wife was outed in her CIA undercover capacity has alleged this, but I'm not sure it wasn't someone of an accident, where somebody passed on information about her role, and Bob Novak used the word "operative," which means undercover, and that may explain it all....


This is His Nibs Bob Woodward, so I fear what we're hearing is the sound of conventional wisdom being set in concrete.

Toss that in with the notion that Valerie Plame's position wasn't covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and you can see how the GOP and the mainstream press are going to work together harmoniously to persuade America that there's nothing here to be concerned about.

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