By now you’ve seen various GOP talking heads out there trying to defend ol’ Turd Blossom’s treasonous act of leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame, as political payback for former Ambassador Joe Wilson’s debunking of Bush’s “Saddam Hussein sought nuclear materials from Africa” claim.* “It’s a partisan smear,” I heard Ken Mehlman spout. “Democrats are pushing the story for political gain”, “Rove was just trying to stop an inaccurate story”, “Well, he didn’t say her name” — it’s hard to keep up with the non-stop flow of effluvia emanating from Spin Central.
That’s why I’m proud to link to this excellent post at The Left Coaster by eriposte. Check the link for latest updates, but here is what I found this morning, and I’m following the direction to “spread it far and wide”. The full list of Republican Talking Points and Reality-Based Rebuttals (with supporting links) follow after the jump.
TALKING POINT: Valerie Plame (Joseph Wilson’s wife) was not covert.
TALKING POINT: Karl Rove did not leak Valerie Plame’s name.
FACT: Please. Her name was not the secret, her identity was (which is the issue here) and he leaked that. (also see here and here).
TALKING POINT: Karl Rove was “not the leaker“.
FACT: Rove’s attorney’s statement and Cooper’s email shows this claim is false. Rove did leak Plame’s identity. (Whether or not this is found to be prosecutable is another matter).
P.S. It’s not like this is the first time Rove has been in the spotlight for leaking secrets.
TALKING POINT: Karl Rove did not reveal classified information.
FACT: A CIA agent’s identity is considered classified.
TALKING POINT: Karl Rove has never lied about his role in this matter.
FACT: Yes, he has.
TALKING POINT: The White House has never lied or misled people about its role in this matter.
FACT: False.
TALKING POINT: Karl Rove never knew that Valerie Plame was covert.
FACT: Really? Then why not state this on the record, something Rove’s attorney refuses to do.
TALKING POINT: Matt Cooper of Time magazine “burned” Rove.
FACT: Rove’s lawyer, who made the above fake claim, himself has been expounding again and again about how Rove gave complete waivers to all his journalist contacts to testify.
TALKING POINT: Bob Novak used the word “operative” by accident and his sources did not say she was one.
FACT: This is false, after-the-fact spin from Novak.
TALKING POINT: Rove “was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story” based on Joe Wilson’s “false premise” (that DCI Tenet or VP Cheney authorized his trip)
FACT:
False. Moreover, Joe Wilson did not make such a claim before Rove exposed Valerie Plame’s identity.False. Moreover there’s no “…’trying to prevent a bad or innaccurate story from being run’ exception to the relevant statute…” [updated 7/14]TALKING POINT: All Rove was doing was trying to reveal the truth to Matt Cooper of Time magazine. [added 7/14]
FACT: False.
TALKING POINT: The Senate Intelligence Committee said that Valerie Plame was the one who set up Joe Wilson’s trip.
FACT: False and false. (Also see here). (In fact, there is no consensus view that Valerie Plame even suggested that Wilson be sent on the trip.)
TALKING POINT: The White House/GOP cannot comment on questions regarding Rove or his role because of the ongoing investigation.
FACT: False. A completely bogus claim considering that they are talking behind the scenes or issuing false/misleading press releases (also see here and here) spreading fakery about Wilson. (Not to mntion, they felt free to comment self-servingly about the whole matter until the Rove story broke.)
TALKING POINT: Karl Rove is not a target of Fitzgerald’s investigation.
FACT: He is a subject of the investigation.
TALKING POINT: The Butler Report etc. vindicated Bush’s “uranium in Africa” State of the Union claim.
FACT: False. The Butler Report was intended to exonerate Tony Blair and George Bush to prevent them from facing criminal charges. For obvious reasons, it excluded reams of information about Bush’s claim that showed that the White House lied through it’s teeth in defending Bush’s claim. (Indeed, as the link shows, people from the NSA, CIA etc. themselves stated that the SOTU claim did not have a sound backing.)
TALKING POINT: This is all just a partisan attack by Democrats (or Joseph Wilson)
FACT: False. The GOP leadership has a habit of minimizing numerous acts of treason from individuals inside the Bush administration over the last several years, by smearing truth-tellers. This is just the latest episode among many. In private, even Republicans admit that this kind of nonsense would have resulted in Congressional hearings “in a second”, if the President had been a Democrat. Not to mention the hypocrisy of Rove himself.
TALKING POINT: Even if Karl Rove leaked Valerie Plame’s identity, it’s no big deal and deserves a medal.
FACT: The GOP’s Ed Gillespie and George Bush disagreed (with an emphasis on ‘d’). In fact, if it’s so not a big deal, why all this intrigue about what the White House can or cannot comment on? Just tell the truth then rather than hiding behind reporters and smears of people who had nothing to do with the expose. (As for medals, it probably deserves a medal in prison, to define the “role model” for fellow prisoners at Gitmo – while eating rice pilaf in the process).
TALKING POINT: There was no legal crime committed with the Plame expose.
FACT: False and false. So much for offering “a stiff dose of truth” instead of “more lectures, and legalisms, and carefully worded denials”.
TALKING POINT: Joseph Wilson supported John Kerry.
FACT: He also supported Republicans in the past, including a $1000 campaign contribution to George W. Bush in 2000 (before the GOP turned on him and his wife, treasonously) and was recognized by George Bush Sr. for his bravery against Saddam Hussein in Iraq – where he was acting* ambassador before Gulf War I. He not only “sheltered 800 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad during Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait,” his wife has long been a CIA WMD operative working to keeps WMDs away from terrorists. His pre-Iraq war (II) stance even got some support from George Bush Sr. Also see here. [*added/updated on 7/14]
TALKING POINT: President Bush is committed to upholding the honor and dignity of his office.
*I know most of you already know the background. I just like to keep repeating it so nobody forgets that we’re talking about TREASON here.
