Condoleezza Rice & Rovegate

David Sirota think it is time to start asking questions about Condoleezza Rice involvement in Rovegate.

I'm thinking we need to start asking Condoleezza Rice some questions. Now, I say that having no proof at all that she was involved. I'm just trying to read what we do know. And if you think about it, Rice really should be on the hot seat. Here is a person who came out of academia and who might not have the appreciation for how quickly you can get burnt down for leaking classified info, and who might think that's all part of "how its done" in Washington's partisan battles. [..]

Also, she was the face of the Bush administration in the lead up to war - she was the front person in defending all the administration's WMD claims, she was talking to all sorts of reporters trying to make the WMD threat seem as menacing as possible. She was the one who allowed Bush's reference to Iraq supposedly buying uranium from Niger to get into the State of the Union address, and then denied it by laughably pretending she never read the intelligence reports debunking the claim - as if we are expected to believe that.

David Sirota points out in Robert Novak article on October 1, 2003, The CIA leak, that Novak describe senior administration official as not a ‘partisan gunslinger’.

During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger.

This is the most partisan White House in recent history, but in the media Condoleezza Rice is portrayed as non-partisan. Most of all of the Senior administration officials, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest are very partisan. I agree with David Sirota, Novak is not credible on any issue but, why would he describe senior administration official as not a ’partisan gunslinger’? Novak would not depict Cheney as non-partisan.

Next, Sirota points out Rice's number two, Stephen Hadley , may be implicated in the scandal.

Rove told then-deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley in the July 11, 2003, e-mail that he had spoken with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and tried to caution him away from some allegations that CIA operative Valerie Plame's husband was making about faulty Iraq intelligence.

This is all speculation on the part of Sirota, but I do find his points to be very interesting. Read the whole post for yourself.

Bob Brigham over at Swing State Project is right.

We know for a fact that at least one other senior Administration official is involved in the leak. Instead of asking which additional senior administration official is involved, I think we need to be asking if any officials are not involved.

Q. Mr. President who was not involved in outing CIA agent in your administration?