Writ reader Elizabeth pointed out that Rove is no stranger to leaking information to Robert Novak…

(Salon) July 7, 2005 | WASHINGTON — When Karl Rove was little known outside Texas political circles, he was fired from George H.W. Bush’s 1992 reelection campaign for leaking information to syndicated columnist Robert Novak. According to newspaper reports at the time, Rove was terminated for passing information to Novak from a meeting of the president’s chief advisors. Rove denied he was the leaker.

“I have no idea whether [Rove] was the source or not,” former Ambassador Joseph Wilson told Salon on Wednesday. “But certainly he was part of the effort to push this story, including his phone call to [‘Hardball’ host] Chris Matthews.” Wilson claims that Matthews told him that Rove had called days after the Novak column ran and said that Wilson’s wife, Plame, was “fair game.” Matthews has testified in the Plame case, though publicly he has neither confirmed nor denied Wilson’s statement.

“In my judgment, [Rove’s] behavior, even if it is not criminal, it is certainly below the standards of ethics we have a right to expect from our senior White House leadership,” Wilson said. “It’s an outrageous abuse of power.”