July 12, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

Rove, White House Getting in Deep

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Curious Stranger has a good back-and-forth from White House press conferences on the subject.

We’ve been keeping an eye on this story for a few weeks because of the potential fallout in Colorado should the Valerie Plame story do serious damage to President Bush’s popularity and perception. “Bush’s Brain,” advisor and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, is having a hard time hiding from news that he may have been the source to out Plame as a CIA operative (for more background, see our past posts on this).

The story is all over the national media, and it made its way to Colorado today with pieces in The Denver Post (HERE, and HERE) and 9News.com.

From The Washington Post:

President Bush’s aides put up a wall yesterday when questioned about revelations that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove had discussed the role of CIA official Valerie Plame with a reporter despite past White House assertions that he was not involved in her unmasking.

Engulfed by questions at two combative briefings, White House press secretary Scott McClellan cited the continuing criminal investigation to say that he would not discuss conversations Rove had with a reporter about Plame before her name was published, or say whether Bush’s pledge to fire anyone involved in leaking classified information still stands.

If Rove indeed leaked the name, that constitues a serious federal crime. But the political ramifications are bad enough. Here’s more from The Washington Post:

Whether a crime occurred remains the focus of special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, but the latest revelations also leave White House credibility at stake, given past statements by the president, McClellan and others. Over the weekend, Newsweek reported that Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, in an internal e-mail from July 2003, cited Rove as saying that administration critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, had gone to Niger on a fact-finding trip involving Iraq’s nuclear weapons programs at the behest of his wife. At the same time, according to Cooper’s account, Rove also noted that she worked for the CIA on issues of weapons of mass destruction.

Democrats are clamoring for Rove to be fired, since Bush had previously said that anyone involved in outing Plame would be fired:

Asked about the matter on nine occasions over the years, Bush has said he welcomed the investigation, called the name disclosure “a very serious matter,” and declared that the sooner investigators “find out the truth, the better, as far as I’m concerned.”

Bush replied “yes” when asked in June 2004 if he would fire anyone who leaked the agent’s name.

Bush is now in a difficult position to say the least. If Rove is fired, he is basically admitting guilt. If Rove is not fired, Bush comes off as looking like he’ll protect his friends at the cost of the law and, if you want to make a stretch, national security.

The bigger this story gets, and the deeper into the White House it goes, the more it hurts Bush’s perception as President. And as we’ve pointed out before, the further Bush falls, the tougher it will be for some Republicans in tough races in Colorado. Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave and CD-7 Republican candidate Rick O’Donnell would suffer the most from a Bush decline, and Congressman Bob Beauprez might even feel it in his race for governor. For Republicans, it looks like this one is going to get worse before it gets better.