All You Need is Rove
I don't have a lot to add to the whole Valerie Plame thing. Karl Rove should resign or be fired, but I doubt that will happen. It's extremely doubtful that his leak was an accident, and it certainly wasn't done for the greater good. But Bush will probably keep him anyway.
But one thing that continues to puzzle me is the whole controversy over Time magazine handing over Matt Cooper's notes. Time had to choose between the law and the principle of maintaining confidentiality. Jacob Weisberg does a very good job in this article defending Time's decision, because, with all due respect to Judy Miller and the New York Times, there's no such thing as a right to maintain confidential sources, at least not at the federal level. And the reason is to avoid cases like this, where confidentiality aided in the comission of a crime. So there's not really a choice here, unless journalists think that they're above the law. But frankly, that's a really bad precedent to be setting. How, then, do you decide who's a "journalist"? And how do you prevent other professions from claiming similar rights?
2 comments:
Jake,
As happy as I am about the Rove situation I really don't feel like it will change things other than the appearence of the way government works. Even if he is fired or resigns (though I don't see that as the path of the residents resident bulldog) do you think that he will no longer be a part of the government.
The ignoring of the Robert Novak treason (which is the classification that you get charged for when revealing undercover federal agents)
by him writing an article saying that it was common knowledge around Washington makes me believe that nothing will happen leagaly in this.
My bigger hope is that will show a lot of those people who think that our current president and staff was sent to Washington to speak the plain truth and get things done realise the methods that they have been using to try and control those that don't agree with them.
Well, I do have to say that it is fun to watch the press secutary do an about face and to see the press finally try and stick it to him. If that continues then this will be worth the effort.
Agreed. Remember the whole "we're going to change the tone of Washington" trope from Bush's first term? I think this pretty much puts the final nail in that coffin.
As for Novak, from what I understand he's been left alone because he cooperated. I'm still holding out hope that the investigator, Fitzgerald, has dug up something really good, and that there's more light than heat in this story.
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