SO ROVE'S THE RAT?

Apparently Bush puppetmaster Karl Rove has been fingered as the source of the leak in the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

If this is true Rove could be indicted and tried under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. Without going into too much depth (you can follow the link and read it for yourself) the act makes it a crime punishable by anywhere from 3 to 10 years in prison or up to $50,000 dollars or both to disclose the identity of a covert intelligence operative when:

1. the person has or had authorized access to classified information
2. the person, through or because of that access learned the identity of said operative, AND (and this is a big and)
3. the person intentionally disclosed the identity to someone else not authorized to know that the identified was a covert operative.

It's a pretty narrow test and difficult to prove the intent prong (as this article in Slate details in regard to Robert Novak -the original publisher of Plame's name. )

It's tempting to envision Rove doing the "perp-walk" in orange jumpsuit for the cameras but it's unlikely even if he's indicted.

Hope he gets the Susan McDougal treatment. I was watching "The Hunting of the President" last week, and the most poignant moment of the film was when Susan McDougal (who was dragged through the mud and worse in the right-wing hit campaign dubbed "Whitewater") recounted her treatment in prison after she was sent there because she refused to lie about the Clintons.

She was dressed in red prison scrubs and housed in the wing reserved for women who have killed their children. She said that every time she went past other parts of the prison the other prisoners threatened derided and threw things at her because they thought that she was a child killer because of the color of her scrubs. She was given death threats and needed additional security while she was there. Moreover, every time she appeared in court she was forbidden from wearing civilian clothes and was led in manacles back and forth from court.

If Rove is convicted (and I say "if" because I'm a liberal and so I still believe in the principle of innocent until proven guilty, even for those I detest like Rove) I have a twisted fantasy of him being housed in the pedophile wing and dressed accordingly. (*sigh*)

Not that I'm vindictive or anything. ;-)

Actually my favorite part of the DVD was the "special feature" of Clinton's videotaped speech after the Sundance premiere of the film. Damn I miss him! He's just so exponentially more intelligent than anyone in the Bush cabal.

Anyway, he made what I think is a crucial point: we (democrats) cannot fight back by becoming them( the GOP) -i.e. by using their tactics. We have to 1. not back down (listen up Harry Reid) 2. continue to point out why their wrong using the truth and facts, and 3. (and this IMHO is the BIG POINT) say how we'd do it differently.

It was nice to have some validation for what your own OP has been saying for sometime now. And from none other than the man himself.