Politics revealed

I've been reading quite closely the last week or so the growing imbroglio that is enveloping President Bush's top political advisor Karl Rove. For those of you who are unfamiliar (or not intimately acquainted) Rove is undoubtedly the dirtiest political operative in recent memory. Nixon and his cronies had nothing on Rove. Among his offenses, Rove has been linked to a variety of scandals including several highly illegal election fraud actions in Texas that were never prosecuted. Included in previous allegations:

- Taping election eve messages that were faked to sound like the opposition candidate, were offensive, and called election voters repeatedly all night long;
- The old dirty trick of printing and handing out fliers for the opposition that are offensive and outright lies; and,
- Egregiously, winning a Court election battle in Alabama by spreading false rumors that the opposing candidate was a pedophile.

I'm only mentioning three because from what I've read, those are the three most frequent (illegal) weapons in his arsenal. This is not a good man. In fact, regardless of affiliation, Rove pretty much represents the worst that politics has to offer and he's due several lengthy jail terms that will never happen because of his position, a lack of evidence, and the fact that all the prosecutors in the states he worked in are Republicans.

The latest scandal, however, has actually been brewing since 2003. Essentially, in the drive to talk up the case for doing a war with Iraq, the Bush team sent former Ambassador Joe Wilson IV to Niger to verify the claim that Iraq attempted to purchase "yellow cake" uranium in 1999. Wilson's report was that the claim was false. Later, when the admin used the Niger argument, Wilson wrote a scathing response in the New York Times based on the report he had written for the Department of State that indicted the claim. The administration response was to "out" his wife, Valerie Plame/Wilson, as being a CIA undercover operative. For two years, it's been pretty clear that Rove was the one who leaked that information. It fits his style but also the multiple stories that outed her used the term "senior administration officials" and there were only a few people it could have been.

At any rate, now, two years later, details and facts are starting to come out. Rove, in a moment of stunning brilliance, apparently sent one of the reporters an email that referred to Wilson's wife as a CIA agent. That's what we know right now. Interestingly, columnist Robert Novak, who is a subject of an ongoing investigation, used the word "operative" in his article about this in 2003, a distinction that clearly implies that he was told that she was not just in the CIA, but was also in a covert position. Releasing that information, although difficult to prove, is a felony meaning that the guilty party could be jailed.

That's the legal side. But I'm not so fascinated by that because as of right now, there isn't much more than speculation. The grand jury proceedings are obviously sealed and the legal case will develop in time. I prefer not to speculate about that as many other places are and I'll just be repeating someone else's position.

Instead, I want to focus on two things. First, regardless of whether there is evidence of a conspiracy or obstruction of justice (two areas that Rove is being investigated), it seems completely clear at this point that a man with a Top Secret security clearance leaked confidential information that endangered the lives of US intelligence assets around the globe. I don't know much about security clearances, but it seems evident to me that his should be revoked. Whether it's on purpose or not, leaking that information represented a threat to America's national security and I can't imagine John CIA doing the same and escaping with his clearance intact, not to mention his job. Rove's clearance must be revoked. That won't happen (unless charges are filed) because that would essentially make his job in the White House impossible and whatever one thinks of George Bush, he's loyal to a fault. He doesn't want to oust Rove after all the man did to help him get elected.

The other point is that this investigation is the result of a Special Prosecutor. We all remember the Whitewater non-scandal and it's decade long aftermath. Clinton, in his book, says one of the gravest mistakes of his presidency was to authorize creation of the Special Prosecutor position. Now I don't know if a DOJ "Special Prosecutor" is the same as Clinton's "Independent Prosecutor", but it ultimately doesn't matter. The point is, the current administration finds itself embroiled in a high level controversy that actually has substance. It's nice to see the tables turned, for once.

The GOP strategy to deal with this is to claim that the Democrats are trying to "smear" Rove, a laughable claim, and to essentially wait it out until a Supreme Court nomination is made that will create a cacophony of opposition likely to drown out the significance of the Rove debacle. The RNC issued a talking points memo to that effect yesterday. Since that appears to be the big strategy, I'm going on the record now and predicting that the nominee is likely to be much more conservative and controversial than one might expect. Not only does appointing a radical conservative to the Court serve the special interest groups the are dominating the GOP at the moment, it helps drown out the Rove scandal, and, at the same time, complicates things for Democrats politically as the only way to stop it is to filibuster which is a whole 'nuther political hand grenade.

At any rate, this whole ongoing saga reveals just how dirty politics is and how dodgy the game is played. Not only is the Rove crew a depraved bunch (who goes after an opponents wife, for f*cks sake?), but the whole GOP response strategy is yet another lesson that politics is ultimately about power and not policy or even voter interests. It will be interesting to see how this plays out...interesting in the way we all look at gory car accidents as we roll past on the freeway. But this is ultimately what America voted for, so this is what they're getting. Just desserts, I suppose.