Karl and Scooter Jail House Rock

Karl and Scooter With Some New Friends
Steven (headband at left) and Ari (second from right)
Get Used to Their New Home

The clichés are flying fast...."the dam is breaking"..."smoking gun"...etc. The clichés may be right.

Bloomberg is reporting, what had been rumored for two days, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby appear to have given false information to the Plamegate Grand Jury.

Two top White House aides have given accounts to the special prosecutor about how reporters told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to persons familiar with the case.

[...] These discrepancies may be important because one issue Fitzgerald is investigating is whether Libby, Rove, or other administration officials made false statements during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has its genesis in whether any administration officials violated a 1982 law making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a CIA agent.

The President's Men, it seems, didn't get their stories straight before testifying. Seems like a big mistake for a genius and slick Dick Cheney's top aide.

The New York Times has more evidence that the clichés apply.

According to a report that will be published Friday, during time timeframe in which Valerie Wilson was outed, Rove and Libby were working closely to deflect criticism of the President resulting from his State of the Union claim of Saddam's efforts to procure nuclear material in Africa.

The effort was striking because to an unusual degree, the circle of officials involved included those from the White House's political and national security operations, which are often separately run. Both arms were drawn into the effort to defend the administration during the period.

In another indication of how wide a net investigators have cast in the case, Karen Hughes, a former top communications aide to Mr. Bush, and Robert Joseph, who was then the National Security Council's expert on weapons proliferation, have both told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that they were interviewed by the special prosecutor.

But, wait there's more coming tomorrow. The Wall Street Journal will run an article that apparently confirms today's reports that the supposedly secret memo floating around Air Force One that may have been the primary information source regarding Valerie Wilson's identity, was more that "secret". It was more than "double secret". It was "top secret" and restricted to from any foreign distribution to even our closest allies. Top secret - except to the news media to whom her identity was being shopped.

Of course, Bush and Cheney will stand behind their boys. The closer they stand the more crap that is going to stick to them.

(photo ctsteve)