Frank Rich on Rove

Frank Rich's latest Op-Ed piece takes on Karl Rove and his involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame as a covert-op for the CIA. He says that this is bigger than Rove, bigger than Plame, bigger than Wilson.

Let me reiterate: This case is not about Joseph Wilson. He is, in Alfred Hitchcock's parlance, a MacGuffin, which, to quote the Oxford English Dictionary, is "a particular event, object, factor, etc., initially presented as being of great significance to the story, but often having little actual importance for the plot as it develops." Mr. Wilson, his mission to Niger to check out Saddam's supposed attempts to secure uranium that might be used in nuclear weapons and even his wife's outing have as much to do with the real story here as Janet Leigh's theft of office cash has to do with the mayhem that ensues at the Bates Motel in "Psycho."

This case is about Iraq, not Niger. The real victims are the American people, not the Wilsons. The real culprit - the big enchilada, to borrow a 1973 John Ehrlichman phrase from the Nixon tapes - is not Mr. Rove but the gang that sent American sons and daughters to war on trumped-up grounds and in so doing diverted finite resources, human and otherwise, from fighting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. That's why the stakes are so high: this scandal is about the unmasking of an ill-conceived war, not the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative who posed for Vanity Fair.

So what's next in Rove's second leak of need-to-know only information? He probably won't be fired as he was by Dubya's daddy, but he'll surely resign, I mean, he's just gotta, right? But when...

Seasoned audiences of presidential scandal know that there's only one certainty ahead: the timing of a Karl Rove resignation. As always in this genre, the knight takes the fall at exactly that moment when it's essential to protect the king.

King George.
::sigh::

I can see it now. The White House will deliver some huge gigantic news at 4.30p on a Friday evening, as per usual. And on the following Monday, before the Friday evening news can get too big, Rove will do his little Tricky Dick impersonation and a victory will be proclaimed by the Left. But things will trickle through in the coming days afterwards. Sneaky fucks.

Comments

[agustin]

it is all pretty obvious isn't it? But, then again, it has been obvious since the march to war first began: Wilson's report was printed front page overseas, but was hardly mentioned by said newspaper now nailing Rove to a wall, and comparing this investigation implicitly to the nixon tapes.

Guess what? Enough important info was in the hands of newspaper editors in 2003 to put a serious dent into going into Iraq, and they didn't act. If they had, maybe we could compare THAT to the nixon tapes, but nothing was stopped, and nothing was uncovered until well after the fact.

I'm not crazy about the grandstanding in this piece - it is quite clear that they are just as much under the spin machine's, be it rove, bush, etc, thumb as anyone else.

BLECH, nyt, BLECH.

[Ajayi]

It seems like most presidential scandals are inevitably compared to Nixon. Hence all the (insert word ‘here’ before) gate. I have not heard the media make ‘much ado’ about how this is so issue is so ‘classic’ Rove. Rove has used similar tactics to undermine opponents for years. From his bid in the 70s to be Chair of the National College Republican, to discrediting Jim Hightower in Texas during the 80s, and Swift Boaters in the last election. The guy does not know how to play fair. I think he needs some therapy to fix whatever scarred him when some ‘bully’ stole his lunch money.

[Rep. Mark B. Cohen]

We can never know for sure, but we cannot count on a Rove resignation any time soon. Rove is a quintessential symbol of what the 21st Century Republican Party stands for, and there will continue to be great resistance to letting him go.

[albert]

With Dubya lowering the bar to now counting out all criminals from his staff [lowered from what McClellan in 2003 said that nobody with _any_ involvement in this has a place in the WH] and this much heat generated, Rove's just gotta go. When, that's a whole different question. I'm just worried about the gigantic smokescreen his resignation will provide.