Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, responded to the growing swirl of of speculation about whether his client was the source the leak of Valerie Plames identity. Luskin says Rove did not reveal her identity.

Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003, during the week before published reports revealed the identity of operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic and former U.S. envoy Joseph Wilson.

In confirming the conversation between Rove and Cooper, Rove attorney Robert Luskin emphasized that the presidential adviser did not reveal any secrets. But the disclosure raised new questions about Rove and the precise role of the White House in the apparent national security breach as Cooper and another reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, face imminent jail terms.

Rove is no stranger to this grand jury.

by TChris

It is axiomatic that Supreme Court decisions are a matter of public record. If they weren't, they would be useless as precedent. Why, then, did the Justice Department classify as secret "a four-line quotation of a published Supreme Court decision"?

The culture of secrecy in government has flourished in the Bush administration. The NY Times reports that federal departments are "classifying documents at the rate of 125 a minute." What is it the Bush administration doesn't want you to know about its governance? Pretty much everything.

A record 15.6 million documents were classified last year, nearly double the number in 2001, according to the federal Information Security Oversight Office. Meanwhile, the declassification process, which made millions of historical documents available annually in the 1990's, has slowed to a relative crawl, from a high of 204 million pages in 1997 to just 28 million pages last year.

The administration's effort to avoid public scrutiny of its actions is so outrageous that even some Republicans are starting to complain.

Not surprisingly, Time Magazine has come under fire by journalists for its decision to turn over Matthew Coopers' notes in the Valerie Plame investigation. Bottom line: Reporters, watch your own back, Time won't do it for you.

After the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, [Time Editor- in-Chief Norman] Pearlstine says he concluded that TIME Inc. had an obligation to follow the law and obey the ruling. "An organization that prides itself on pointing its finger at people shouldn't be breaking the law itself," he said.

So the question is, should there be a federal shield law to protect reporters?

In the future, the best hope for journalists may be a federal shield law, now in Congress, which would let reporters keep sources confidential under any circumstances. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have shield laws, while 18 additional states have similar protections. A federal law has been proposed by Senator Richard Lugar and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who have signed up dozens of co-sponsors

Update: Here's an argument against a federal shield law.

by TChris

Poor Arlen.

Perhaps more than any other senator, Mr. Specter will be the pivotal figure as he tries to manage his bitterly divided committee, his own uneasy relationship with the White House and the intense pressure that is already bearing down on him from both the left and right at a time when both sides are deeply suspicious of him.

Senator Specter (the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee) fears the power of his party's right wing, but he knows his constituents don't want him to support an extreme nominee. Hoping to avert an ugly battle before his committee, Specter has asked the president to meet with a Senate team of Democrats and Republicans--Frist, Reid, Leahy, and Specter--to work toward a consensus nominee. That notion enjoys wide support, but seeking a consensus hasn't been the president's management style.

Just a reminder...

skippy needs a million hits by July 13! Don't even think about it, just click here and help make it happen.

TBogg's got them.

More than 200,000 people marched Saturday in Scotland -- where the G-8 summit will take place-- as part of the "Make Poverty History"

More than 200,000 anti-poverty campaigners formed a human chain around Scotland's capital on Saturday, echoing the musical call of the Live 8 concerts that world's wealthiest nations act to lift Africa out of misery. The "Make Poverty History" march launched a week of demonstrations ahead of the Group of Eight summit to be held near Edinburgh next week, with protesters hoping to pressure President Bush and his G-8 colleagues to end the misery of millions in the developing world.

Update: In my e-mail box tonight (no idea from whom):

Please tell Sir Bob that we fully support his efforts to get the G8 nations to eliminate poverty in Africa. We offered up our Sunday Mass for the success of his wonderful work.

Two New Zealand grandparents.

I doubt that Sir Bob is reading TalkLeft, but if he is, consider the message passed on, my pleasure.

According the Washington Post on October 12, 2003, Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's focus was on the month before the Novak column:

In their interviews, FBI agents are asking questions about events going back to at least early June, the sources said. That indicates investigators are examining not just who passed the information to Novak and other reporters but also how Plame's name may have first become linked with Wilson and his mission, who did it and how the information made its way around the government.

Jump to right after the Novak column appeared:

Update: The Pink Floyd reunion is starting now.

I'm watching the Who rock London....

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
...we won't get fooled again

....Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Still Awesome, 20 plus years later.

Via Atrios, Newsweek's Mike Isikoff wrote this today:

Now the story may be about to take another turn. The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House. Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But in an interview with NEWSWEEK, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article. It is unclear, however, what passed between Cooper and Rove.

Crooks and Liars points us to a March 6, 2004 CNN article reporting that Air Force One records were subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame grand jury investigation, and to America Blog who has a flashback to President Bush's statement of October 6, 2003 in which he told his staff to cooperate with the grand jury investigation.

I'm beginning to wonder, and it's only a musing at this point not an allegation, given all of the Administration officials who were interviewed by the grand jury or who testified before the grand jury, including President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Colin Powell, Scott McClellan and others, and the reporters other than Miller and Cooper who previously revealed their sources to the grand jury (e.g., Tim Russert and Walter Pincus,) whether there might not be more than one person who perjured themselves, or whether there might have been a plan for the real source to mislead the grand jury - or a coverup designed to protect the real source, which could constitute obstruction of justice.

Here are some some more flashbacks to prior reported information. I'll leave it to readers to connect any dots. All sources are available on Lexis.com:

by TChris

Just as the moderately conservative Justice O'Connor is viewed as a lefty by some extremists, the more conservative Alberto Gonzales is viewed by many in the right wing as too liberal to sit on the Supreme Court.

Within hours after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's announced retirement from the Supreme Court, members of conservative groups around the country convened in five national conference calls in which, participants said, they shared one big concern: heading off any effort by President Bush to nominate his attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales to replace her.

The right wing base that kept Bush in office intends to call in its chips.

Paul M. Weyrich, a veteran conservative organizer and chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, said he had told administration officials that nominating Mr. Gonzales, whose views on abortion are considered suspect by religious conservatives, would fracture the president's conservative backers.