Joseph Wilson has said several times that although Karl Rove might not be the person who originally leaked his wife's name, he thinks Rove was definitely involved in pushing the story. Here's how he put it to Ted Koppel last Wednesday:
What I have confidence in — based upon what respectable press people in this town have told me — is that a week after the Novak article came out, Karl Rove was still calling around and talking to press people, saying Wilson's wife is fair game.
The gist of the message, as it was reported back to me right after the phone call, was "I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He tells me your wife is fair game."
The newsmagazine also notes that, according to a source close to Wilson, shortly after the leak occurred Bush's senior aide Karl Rove told Hardball host Chris Matthews that Wilson's wife was "fair game."
At a White House press briefing, Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, repeatedly said that Bush and his White House took no action after the Novak column was published on July 14 because the leak was attributed only to anonymous sources. "Are we supposed to chase down every anonymous report in the newspaper?" McClellan remarked.
He was arguing that a serious leak attributed to anonymous sources was still not serious enough to cause the president to ask, what the hell happened? And he made it seem as if the White House just ignored the matter. Not so. Mitchell's remark and even the Rove-friendly account of the Rove-Matthews conversation are evidence the White House tried to further the Plame story--that is, to exploit the leak for political gain. Rather than respond by trying to determine the source of a leak that possibly violated federal law and perhaps undermined national security ( The Washington Post reported that the leak also blew the cover of a CIA front company, "potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure"), White House officials sought to take advantage of it. Spin that, McClellan.
Chris Matthews? But Wilson said his sources were "respectable press people" . . .
It seems to me if a reporter called Joe Wilson and said, "I just talked to Karl Rove and he says your wife is fair game", the reporter has already revealed his source. Subpoena the reporter and ask not "Did Karl Rove say this to you?", but, "Did you say this to Joe Wilson?"
