Let the Distancing Begin

This is the first article I've read that convinced me beyond any doubt that Karl Rove is about to be indicted. It is titled "Sources: Rove Told Bush He Had No Role In Leak." It reads in part:

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told President Bush and others that he never engaged in an effort to disclose a CIA operative’s identity to discredit her husband’s criticism of the administration’s Iraq policy, according to people with knowledge of Rove’s account in the investigation.

They said Rove’s denial to Bush occurred during a brief conversation in fall 2003, shortly after media reports revealed that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, worked as a covert CIA operative. * * *

The discussion with Bush, along with others, was general and did not get into specifics concerning Rove’s contacts with two reporters, Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper and syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who wrote stories identifying Plame, the people familiar with Rove’s account said.

They said Bush asked Rove to assure him he was not involved in an effort to divulge Plame’s identity and punish Wilson, and the longtime confidant assured him so. He answered similarly when White House press secretary Scott McClellan asked a similar question.

What a crock. The White House has obviously read the writing on the wall and is attempting to put some distance between Karl Rove and President Bush when it comes to this whole Plame TreasonGate Scandal. The administration is now trying to make it look like Bush was on top of things a couple years ago by taking the position that Bush asked Rove the right question and that (gasp!) Rove lied to our president!

In the last few days, Rove has been removed from his usual day-to-day involvement in Bush Regime activity. The cover story is that Rove is taking time off to help his son find a college (or something to that effect), but it is pretty obvious that he's been taken out of circulation in anticipation of the indictment that is certain to come.

Of course, the Administration's original story on all this was that Rove had nothing to do with the outing of Valerie Plame. This strong need to isolate Rove from the rest of the Administration has arisen now that folks like Matt Cooper and Judith Miller have said otherwise. This strategy, however, has become more difficult to implement given what George Stephanopoulos said last week.

Stephanopoulos revealed that, according to his sources, Bush and Cheney were actually involved in some of the discussions that occurred prior to Valerie Plame being outed as a CIA operative. This is very damaging to the president, and has sparked speculation that he and/or Cheney may be named as unindicted co-conspirators in all this.