Cobb

Good breakdown. Maybe Bush and company are handling this in a way to distract the Democrat's from other things, or is that just wishful thinking?

Ask the deadly question. Is Karl Rove worth it?

The easy answer is no; if Rove has actually outed a spy, he should be fired, or worse.

The harder answer is, that's a pretty big "if." You can't out an agent who serves openly, and whose own identity you learned not from any classified documents but from the press corps, as well may be the case here. If all the reporters knew all along who non-covert agent Valerie Plame was and who she worked for, then the only thing for Rove to out was the fact that her even less covert, non-CIA husband was lying through his teeth when he claimed that Dick Cheney had been the one to select him for his nepotism junket in Niger. There is a reason why we have a statute to protect covert CIA agents but not lying ex-ambassadors.

Also, to fully appreciate the deadly question, sometimes you have to think like the enemy. From the Democrats' perspective, Karl Rove is Public Enemy No. 1, for reasons having nothing to do with Valerie Plame. He's credited with engineering three consecutive electoral spankings thus far, with Lord knows how many more to come. To a Democrat partisan, is Karl Rove worth concocting a phony "scandal" where none existed? You betcha. Notice how many Democrats used to argue for Miller & Cooper's freedom in part on the basis that there was no underlying crime. You don't hear them advancing that argument anymore, and it's not because any new evidence arose that a crime was committed. All that changed is that one of the anonymous non-criminals turned out to be Karl Rove, so there must be a crime lurking in there somewhere, dammit.

I, too, do not see this as black and white as you seem to. If Rove were legitimately (i.e. not based upon partisan hyperbole) under suspicion of illegal activity I'd say cut him loose now. But he isn't, and even the NYT and WP agree. So the real crux is did he do something bad (or bad enough) to merit dismissal. On this question I side with Xrlq, that the worst he could be accused of is falling for the old "confirming a reporter's statement" trick. There is no known situation in which Rove initiated discussion on the subject, which makes him the most inefficient leak in political history.

One of GWB's strengths (and some may argue weaknesses) is his steadfast loyalty to those who work for him. Rolling over on a very dedicated and loyal staffer on a non-issue like this is a bad example and precenent for everyone else in the Administration who supports him.

I don't doubt that the Democrats have their slimy reasons, and I'm not moved one way or another by any weight attached to Niger or uranium. I'm more concerned with the level of defense given to Rove or any White House staffer given that Plame has been outed. I expect that there are interests within the Intelligence community that are being thwarted - the last thing I heard was that Plame was on NOC which is as deep cover as cover goes. I have a very hard time swallowing that this was a lucky guess - which is to say that I don't believe that Cooper, Miller or Novak are capable of finding out on their own who is an American spy and who is not. The consequences of that are rather unthinkable, though stranger things have happened.

I think it is precisely because of the immateriality of Niger that GWBush ought to be well rid of the whiff of scandal. To my ears, "cooperating fully with the investigation" is just stalling. If the Chief of Staff wanted to know, he'd know. This is not the kind of thing that requires a lot of thought. The bottom line is that the White House is on the defensive, and that a whole truth that shows Wilson to be a liar was due months ago. And yet here we are at this late date still learning things.

I've heard the whole conspiracy on DeLay and the accusations against his associates regarding Indian Gaming, so I know how partisans play, but this appears a bit more substantial, and I've been waiting patiently for full disclosure for a long time. The independent investigation by the DOJ better be as convincing as that surrounding Vince Foster's death, or else Bush is in deep doo doo.

As I noted here, Plame reportedly outed herself to then-boyfriend Joe Wilson on the "third or fouth date" during a "heavy makeout session". I've worked around collection activity and this is certainly not the way one stays undercover. NOC or not, considering the number of people who reportedly knew this "secret" long before Novak wrote the first word I still say that the person who originally outed Plame was either her husband or herself.