The New Defense: Bush Knew, But Was Mad At How Clumsy The Attacks Were

by Steve

The New York Daily News has another eye-opener today, when it reports that Bush scolded Karl Rove two years ago about how clumsy Rove and others were in their campaign to discredit Joe Wilson.

WTF?

We are also told in this piece that recent stories that Rove told Bush two years ago that he wasn’t involved were lies spread by White House aides to protect the president, presumably by putting the blame on Rove for lying to Bush. So the new defense is that Bush knew two years ago that his aides were involved in the anti-Wilson campaign, but was only mad about it because they were clumsy about how they went about it, but not mad enough at any time in the last two years to fire anyone involved in the leak, despite public statements that he would do so?

Yeah, that’s a good defense. No wonder Bush and Cheney got their own criminal attorneys.

And for the dim bulbs like Jacob Weisberg and the Bush apologists like Bill Kristol who say nothing big happened here, I give you this from the Daily News today:

So determined was the ring of top officials to win its argument that it morphed into a virtual hit squad that took aim at critics who questioned its claims, sources told the Daily News.

One of those critics was ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who debunked a key claim in a speech by President Bush that Iraq sought nuclear materials in Africa. His punishment was the media outing of his wife, CIA spy Valerie Plame, an affair that became a "side show" for the White House Iraq Group, the sources said.

Besides Rove and Libby, the group included senior White House aides Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James Wilkinson, Nicholas Calio, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley. WHIG also was doing more than just public relations, said a second former intel officer.

"They were funneling information to [New York Times reporter] Judy Miller. Judy was a charter member," the source said.