Matt Cooper and Karl Rove

by eriposte

UPDATE: Bill at Liberal Oasis has a helpful reminder about the issue of leaking classified information (separate from IIPA or anything else): "It has been 738 days since Karl Rove violated his obligations under Standard Form 312 without the White House taking “corrective action.”" Go read his post for more.
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Billmon looks at Matt Cooper's piece on what he told the grand jury, and its not pretty for Rove as other bloggers have noted (I hope to post those updates tomorrow).

But there's one thing that Billmon missed. Billmon says:

Update 6:55 pm ET: Here's the money quote for the pro-Rovian spin brigade:

So did Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No.

This will be re-engineered into conclusive proof that Rove didn't tell Cooper about Plame's covert status because he didn't know about it -- which doesn't follow logically, but what's logic between a few friendly right-wing propaganda bots?

Here's what Cooper also said, as noted by Juan Cole in an excerpt from MTP (bold text is my emphasis and it highlights what Billmon missed):

MR. RUSSERT: This is the cover of your magazine: "Rove on the Spot," subtitled "What I Told the Grand Jury," by Matthew Cooper. And here is an excerpt from your article, which will be available tomorrow in Time magazine.

"So did [Karl] Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No. Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that [Joe] Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and may have been responsible for sending him?"--to Niger. "Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the `agency' on `WMD'?"--weapons of mass destruction. "Yes. When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself impermissible? I don't know."

For the record, the first time you learned that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA was from Karl Rove?

MR. COOPER: That's correct.

MR. RUSSERT: And when Karl concluded his conversation with you, you write he said, "I've already said too much." What did that mean?

MR. COOPER: Well, I'm not sure what it meant, Tim. At first, you know, I thought maybe he meant "I've been indiscreet." But then, as I thought about it, I thought it might be just more benign, like "I've said too much; I've got to get to a meeting." I don't know exactly what he meant, but I do know that memory of that line has stayed in my head for two years.

As Cole points out, Rove told Cooper that things would be "declassified soon", i.e., Rove knew he was leaking classified information to Cooper (which Cooper was not aware of).

Rove is in trouble. Hence the desperate cover-up and lying spree from the GOP on op-eds pages, television and radio.