McClellan: Rove Is ‘Pretty Disingenuous’ When He Talks About CIA Leak, He Should Have Been Fired
McClellan: Rove Is ‘Pretty Disingenuous’ When He Talks About CIA Leak, He Should Have Been Fired
In his explosive new memoir, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan claims that on Sept. 27, 2003 he asked Karl Rove “an unambiguous, unqualified catch-all question” about whether he was involved in “any way” with the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity. “Karl replied categorically, ‘No. Look, I didn’t even know about his wife,’” writes McClellan.
But on Fox News this week, Rove disputed McClellan’s description of their conversation, claiming that “Scott’s questions to me were: did I leak Valerie Plame’s name, and the answer is no.”
On NBC’s Meet The Press today, host Tim Russert asked McClellan about the discrepancy between his and Rove’s stories, pointing out that “one of you is not telling the truth.” Rove’s story is “pretty disingenuous,” replied McClellan. McClellan then added that he said the same thing under oath to a grand jury:
MCCLELLAN: But, let me mention this, that question, when I said, “were you involved in this in any way” and he categorically said, “no.” That is absolutely true. It is what I said under oath to the grand jury. It is what I told investigators. And, secondly, that is the same question I asked Scooter Libby. The very same question I asked Scooter Libby.
Watch it:
As McClellan points out, Rove was in fact involved in the outing of Valerie Plame, speaking about her to two reporters, including Robert Novak, whose column eventually outed her.
Later in the interview, Russert asked about whether President Bush should have fired Rove after his involvement was revealed. Recalling his own statement on behalf of the administration that “If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration,” McClellan said, “I think the president should have stood by the word that we said”:
RUSSERT: But you believe Rove should have left?
MCCLELLAN: I think the president should have stood by the word and that meant Karl should have left.
As McClellan notes, “the bar was moved” by President Bush when it was revealed publicly that his top adviser was involved in exposing an undercover CIA agent. “He said we were going to set the highest of standards, we didn’t live up to that,” said McClellan.
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Tubby McTreason should be in prison. Or worse.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:04 pmI wonder if they’ve picked out the CIA operative KKKarl will out during a McRibs administration.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:05 pmI’m thrilled that SCott McClellan has had a “conscience attack” and come forward with all of this information.
I just really wish he’d done it, oh, 4 years ago when a second Bush term might have been prevented.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:06 pmAlso: Water Still Wet.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pmIn his explosive new memoir, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan claims that on Sept. 27, 2003 he asked Karl Rove “an unambiguous, unqualified catch-all question” about whether he was involved in “any way” with the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity. “Karl replied categorically, ‘No. Look, I didn’t even know about his wife,’” writes McClellan.
Of course Rove was lying, his lips were moving.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
June 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pmThe bar was moved, how symbolic for our dry alcoholic President.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pmAs McClellan notes, “the bar was moved” by President Bush when it was revealed publicly that his top adviser was involved in exposing an undercover CIA agent. “He said we were going to set the highest of standards, we didn’t live up to that,” said McClellan.
The sad fact is “the bar was moved” all the time because it became inconvenient for President Bush. Things like the Constitution and laws got in the way.
Bush trying to set the highest of standards is a joke. He never had any intention of being hindered by any of the laws that govern our country. So why should he punish Rove when what he was doing was far worse.
Unfortunately I think it is too late for them to impeach President Bush, because the process takes so long he would be out of office. Congress has only themselves to blame for allowing that to happen. With the information that Scott has given, they can proceed right now on Rove. Handle Bush & Cheney after the election when Bush can not hand out pardons to everyone. That would be a far worse crime if once convicted, Cheney got a pardon and walked away with no jail time.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:36 pmThe fact is, Scott McClellan is the ONLY White House insider who is willing to testify before congress and answere all of their questions, under oath and on the record, who has no issues with releasing his Grand Jury testimony concerning the Plame/Libby investigation, who is also willing to offer a critical opinion of others in the Bush administration, including Mr. Bush, who is also willing to admit his failings and mistakes without fear of being politically ostracized or of being prosecuted for making contradictory statements in previous testimony. The reason Scott McClellan is coming across so well, compared to other White House insiders, is because he is telling the truth of what he experienced without any need to hide, deny or lie about what he said or did. He has no fear of career, political and or legal repercussions. How many Bush White House insiders have no fear of career, political and or legal repercussions? How many of them could Tim Russert rip apart if they were as open and forthcoming as Scott McClellan is? How many of them would admit that invading Iraq was an unecessary mistake?
June 1st, 2008 at 12:39 pmSadly, as psychotically, if Karl Rove wrote a tell-all book that bashed this administration, he’d be on Fox News trashing the author.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:43 pmI am also very happy that someone in the Bush Administration seems to have a conscience. A bit late, but better late than never.
The book really portrays how far Bush has strayed from campaigning as a “uniter not a divider”. I forgot how quickly Bush changed into the most divisive President in our history. As soon as he took the oath, all bets on unity were out the window. Bush and the gang have bullied all who disagree with their failed policies.
I am glad this book was written if for no other reason than to confirm what the majority of Americans already knew. George W. Bush is the worst President in the history of our nation. January cannot come quick enough for me.
Welcome back from the dark side Mr. McClellan. The truth shall set you free.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:43 pm#10: umm, and psychotically.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:44 pmMaybe the talking point that anybody that was involved in the Plame outing was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They told McClellan to say it, it came out of his mouth, and then Bush who knew who the guilty were the entire time didn’t even make a show of terminating anybody.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:48 pmYou can only push people so far.
Quite telling that the rules never apply to the BushCo Bunch.
Make up the rules as you go, never take responsibility for your actions. Lie through your arse. And still 23% of the sheeple will blindly follow you to Hell.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:50 pmRove is staking the veracity of his claims on the detail that he always referred to Plame as “Wilson’s wife”, never naming her. When he insists that he did not leak “her name”, he is dancing around that the fact that he did reveal her identity, namely in that he said the wife of Ambassador Wilson worked for the CIA. Just because he didn’t name her doesn’t mean he didn’t reveal her identity just the same.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pmJust checking some of the history on this I remembered the phrase, attributed to Karl Rove by Chris Matthews, “fair game,” which Matthews said Rove used in referring to Wilson’s CIA operative wife. The irony is that Rove of course denied using the phrase and implied that Matthews had made it up. Rove’s doing the same sort of thing here, changing the dialog he had with McClellan to be very narrow focused and easily denied – Rove says, “did I leak Valerie Plame’s name, and the answer is no.”
The “Plame” game is, or at least was, well known. Thinking about it and Judy Miller’s notes which had “Flame” hand written, people like Rove and Libby might even have decided to use the name “Flame” to allow for denying disclosing “Plame,” leaving reporter’s investigations to make the correction while providing deniability to the treason. Novak said, err .. correction, implied that he had found, err .. that the name Plame could be found in “Who’s Who” – not even that he had actually found it there. These are self serving legalistic grammatical parsers that were outraged by the examination of what the meaning of “is” is.
And one of the central figures in this old treason was .. Tim Russert.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pmok… i give up.
TP is “moderating” me…
June 1st, 2008 at 1:46 pmcheck out modo’s 6/1 op-ed “cult of deception”…
June 1st, 2008 at 1:47 pminexplicable… why my comments are being “moderated”…
June 1st, 2008 at 1:48 pmI’m of two minds about Scott McClellan. First, way to go Scott! Second, aren’t you three years two late on this? Why stay silent for so long?
June 1st, 2008 at 1:52 pmProbably because you’re not a troll Katy.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:56 pm#20: katy Says:
in explicable… why my comments are being “moderated”…
– - Your comments probably Do Not Fly.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pmOh katy, you said something nasty about the Clintonistas on that other thread. OMG what were you thinking? Lucky you’re not in the dungeon.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pmKaty… at least one trigger for moderation is a word containing the letter A, followed by an N, another A, and finally an L.
Any word with these letters in conjunction gets moderated, and does not show as a post.
Try posting the words Anna List and Ann Al Oh Gee as they are properly spelled, and you will see!
June 1st, 2008 at 2:04 pmi have no idea, guys… didn’t use that word at all, nevar…
but this line in her piece cracked my up:
[scott] takes a stab at illuminating Junior’s bumpy and improbable boomerang journey from family black sheep and famous screw-up back to family black sheep and famous screw-up.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pmand this:
How did W. start out wanting to restore honor and dignity to the White House and end up scraping all the honor and dignity off the White House?
June 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pmweird… and there you have it – the comment that was in moderation, in 2 parts…
June 1st, 2008 at 2:11 pmjeesh.
I’m certain there are other triggers for moderation, that’s the only one I know.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:17 pmI guess TP is kind of… umm…. touchy about certain subjects…..
June 1st, 2008 at 2:19 pmI encourage the discussion of moderation to be moved to the zoo
June 1st, 2008 at 2:32 pm“If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration,” McClellan said, “I think the president should have stood by the word that we said
I wondered at the time if that meant a new VP, but now it seems like to be ‘true to your word’ Bush should resign.
It looks like the highest government officials were lying. It looks like information that was classified was used strictly for political gain and possibly damaged National Security. Can we trigger moderation of that?
June 1st, 2008 at 2:34 pmLet’s try this
dbadass Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
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I got bagged for this the other day. I am still not sure why…
I think Daryll has more of an Andy Kauffman thing going rather than Belushi.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:05 pmI am a little concerned that our friend is being talked around rather than engaged in what seems a very constructive discussion of his works.
Daryll, for real, you know I totally support you. Feel free to jump in. I know it is unsettling to be the topic of such wordlikebuttlysis but I really think this is all good.
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Wow. So it is a four letter word that starts with a and ends witl l which freaks em out even when it is part of a larger word. Good to know next time I have to discuss any of the staff I am wordlikeassish about
June 1st, 2008 at 3:09 pmstaff should be stuff. Maybe it was all the ass talk
June 1st, 2008 at 3:10 pmAs McClellan notes, “the bar was moved” by President Bush
Pres Bush, moving the goalposts? That has never happened.
Pres Bush has always been about “staying the course”, until he said “we’ve never been staying the course”.
I am shocked to read this. Shocked!
June 1st, 2008 at 3:31 pmRove should have been fried. He will be sooner then he wants. Hell grants no pardons.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:43 pmWhen he found out who was actually responsible for leaking classified information Bush went from firing anyone who was involved to firing anyone who committed a crime.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:50 pmI hate the thoughts that are going through my head due to these relevations. I’m wondering if Fitzgerald was threatened with firing if he indicted Rove. I remember a reporter from Truthout actually posted online that Rove HAD been indicted and that there were several WH witnesses to back him up. The next day we heard nothing. Then the next day and the next. Then finally Fitzgerald announced there wasn’t enough evidence to indict Rove. (which almost never happens after 5 Grand Jury appearances.)
I also remember that a Justice Dept official claimed before the Senate that Fitzgerald’s name had been mentioned when they were deciding who to fire. Call me paranoid, but I’m very suspicious.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:29 pmNow that Scotty has shown that telling the truth regains a measure of credibility, it should prove fascinating to see who else grows a conscience. I bet the inner circle is buying Xanax by the carload.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:41 pmSO WHAT IS THE UPSHOT OF ALL THIS? McClellan’s publisher is going to make a crap load of money off of all this whipped up publicity. Will Rove or anyone in the Bush White House serve a jail sentence for any of what they have done?
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 am