Rove Is A Hero?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Dumb Things Said By Smart People, General Politics, Partisan Hacks, The War On Terrorism“I say give Karl Rove a medal, even if Bush has to fire him. Why? Because Valerie Plame should have been outed by somebody. And if nobody else had the cojones to do it, I’m glad Rove did â€â€? if he did do it, and he still says he didn’t.”
-John Gibson, host of Fox’s ‘My Word’
“Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove’s head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we’d say the White House political guru deserves a prize–perhaps the next iteration of the “Truth-Telling” award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.”
-Anonymous, Wall Street Journal Opinion Page
Andrew Sullivan points to these seemingly desperate attempts by the conservative press to paint Rove as a “hero”.
Sullivan weighs in with some sound logic.
Just a thought experiment: can you imagine the WSJ calling to give, say, Sid Blumenthal a medal for outing a CIA operative to counter misinformation in the Bosnia campaign?
Well said Andrew. This is so transparently bogus it hurts my brain.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2005 and is filed under Dumb Things Said By Smart People, General Politics, Partisan Hacks, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
This is silly spin in defense of Rove but I do not necessarily see Rove as some kind of villian here either. He was doing his job protecting his boss by pointing out the truth about how Wilson was selected and that he was not sent at the behest of Cheney as Wilson stated.
Note that a number of lawyers including one who wrote the law on outing CIA operatives (who thinks Rove should be fired) affirm that the law does not apply to Plame for several reasons.
Wilson, and probably Plame were out to embarrass Bush, why should Rove not do the same to Wilson.
WHy is it that that the Dems and the MSM are allowed to treat hardball politics by Rove as some kind of crime when they practice it all the time.
Politics has become exceptionally nasty in DC and attacking the other side is routine.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
CIA desk jockies are not operatives.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
If the object of the news media is to tell the truth, then Rove is the hero. Just because the truth helped swat back an attack on his candidate does not make it any less true. Wilson was/is a liar. The New York Times, LA Times et al were enabling him to spread his lies and give them credibility. They own the shame.
The WSJ is right.
July 15th, 2005 at 12:07 am
“Just a thought experiment: can you imagine the WSJ calling to give, say, Sid Blumenthal a medal for outing a CIA operative to counter misinformation in the Bosnia campaign?”
If the CIA operator was, in fact, a political hack with a politcal axe to grind, whose story was so false and whose reserach was so sloppy, whoever exposed it should be lauded.
That Sid Blumenthal could do such a thing is of no matter. If a Republican attempted to smash a political pipe to President Clinton’s knees during wartime, he would have been castigated by the media, and rightfully so. That you won’t make the same admission, because the attack was made by Democrats, speaks volumes.
July 15th, 2005 at 1:27 am
Well, to each their own. I know what I feel and it certainly isn’t tied to any talking points created a couple days ago by the RNC.
July 15th, 2005 at 2:19 am
I’m no fan of Rove since he has reportedly banned Rep. Tom Tancredo from the White House because he’s a hawk on illegal immigration. That said, the current flap over the Plame incident is a perfect example of the Democrats whistling to their many attack dogs in the media and commanding, “sic ‘em!” It’s blatantly clear, when one reads the pertinent law, that Rove has committed no crime. Plame was brought in from the cold nine years ago when she was compromised by Aldrich Ames.
It’s also interesting to recall the intelligence leaks by Democrats in the 70s and 80s that actually cost operatives their lives. Patrick “Leaky” Leahy earned his nickname for his loose lips, but he wasn’t alone.
July 15th, 2005 at 4:41 am
Since when did the Dems (or anyone for that matter) start standing up for a member of the CIA in their attempt to discredit a standing representative of the American people?
Where are the CIA conspirists now? If there’s any “abuse of power” here, its located behind some desk job at Langley. I applaud Rove for protecting our republic and “outing” an obvious (and blantantly false) power play. Power to the people. Down with the CIA, etc, etc.
Hell, I’m feeling so good, I think I’ll send Rove a couple of Thermi as a good will gesture. Kudoses to him!
July 16th, 2005 at 2:50 am
It’ll be interesting to see if Rove can truly skate around this one. Because if what you say is true, he’ll get off scot-free for trying to destroy a CIA agent’s credibility simply because her husband spoke out against the war. I mean, people, we’re talking about opinions here. The administration thought that Iraq had WMDs (I hope) and the dissenters did not and wanted more proof. So Rove decides that Plame is “fair game”. Come on.
And please…you all are really picking up this Rove Is A Hero meme and running with it? I’ve been guilty of being unquestioning, and this smacks of that. I mean, why is their an investigation in the first place? Because somebody did something that could be considered a crime. Innocent until proven guilty, but this hair you all are spliting is some slim, it’s nearly invisible.