Fox News is spinning hard for Rove. They are attempting to turn the story into a democrat and media gang up on Karl. When the real story is how Karl leaked the name of a CIA operative working in WMDs to the right-wing press as a get even move with her husband. It was illegal. It was an abuse of power. And it was a national security problem close to 9/11 because the work she was doing was important. So it's not just a paper shuffling violation. His actions put us all at risk because it meant that the agency couldn't do it's job, find weapons of mass destruction going to terrorists. So Karl put us all at risk by putting high priority for a political vendetta over his interest in the well being of the country.
The article underplays this line:
"The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration, his administration. I trust they will follow through on this pledge," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
Which I think is where most Democrats stand. Basically, if he leaked the name he should be out of the administration, period. It's a criminal offense and for once this administration should do the right thing when it comes to legal matters and clean this mess up. If it were Clinton in office then this would have ended three years ago just a few months after the leak. But as it is the White House has spent years obstructing justice and lying to the people.
"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is and if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of," Bush said in September 2003.
The article follows this line up with:
Bush did not use the word "fired" to describe the fate of the leaker, but some reporters and Democrats seem to expect that response.
As opposed to what? Killed? Or given a policy position, which is where Karl, an expert political operative, is now. Yeah, I think it's reasonable for anyone to assume that when somebody says "taken care of" when it comes to a leaker who created a national security hole with his arrogance, it means fired. At the very least.
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