Conservatives'll Put A Guy in the Electric Chair on Less Evidence Than Exists Against Rove

Consevatives on the internet are either ignoring the Rove story or playing dumb. Here's a brief primer of the circumstantial case that appears to exist against Rove.

The smoking gun is the INR memo that was prepared on June 10, 2003 shortly after Kristof's NYT piece criticizing Bush’s reliance on the African uranium evidence on the basis of info Kristof was receiving from an unnamed “former ambassador” (who was obviously Wilson). The INR memo's origin is based in the counterattack effort.

The memo is then supplemented and sent to Powell on Air Force One, a flight that left on July 7th, the day after Wilson’s open piece in the NYT. The info in the INR documents that refers to Plame can only be seen as providing info re a counterattack to Wilson’s piece in the NYT that ran on July 6th; THE DAY BEFORE AIR FORCE ONE SETS SAIL. A source on the plane, many believe Powell or someone associated with him, places the memo in Ari Fleischer’s hands. For those who have had their head buried in the sand for the last five years, it is important to understand that Fleischer reports directly to Rove and Rove is the guy in charge of the WH’s media message. The guy who would, in fact, be handling the White House's counter to Wilson's piece.

Again for those righties who are a bit slow, you should be aware that there are these new fangled things called phones that they actually have on Air Force One. In fact, as another commenter noted in a blog I visited today, AFO has a veritable Kinko's on board capable of sending faxes and all sorts of wonderful electronic communications. And you righties might be surprised to know that Fleischer & Rove coordinated the White House’s message every day and, indeed, they talked to each other numerous times throughout any given day.

Now you can believe Fleischer told Rove about the memo. A very reasonable conclusion given that Wilson was the talk of the day. Or you can believe Rove’s story that he learned of Plame through a media (W)horse with No Name. An incredible tale made all the worse by Rove’s initial false stories to McClellan and the FBI. Why the false stories if you did nothing wrong? In court, its called evidence of consciousness of guilt.

And why are all these guys (Rove, Bartlett, Fleischer, etc.) lawyered up? And why won’t their lawyers call Judith Miller’s lawyer and give her a direct, personal, unequivocal and unconditional release?

There is hope, righties. Maybe, you can wait for Rove’s third story or maybe his fourth to find the one you truly want to hang your hat on. There's no doubt he'll continue to spin (most often through anonymous sources, no doubt) right until the bitter end.