I’ve got a question about the whole Karl Rove thing that I don’t hear anybody asking. It has to do with answering the charge that Rove was simply trying to “correct” the Time Magazine reporter, and steer him away from INCORRECT information.

For those of you under a rock this week, Rove has been fingered as a source for the Valerie Plame leak. But it’s already clear what his defense will be:

1) I never used her name, and
2) I was actually trying to steer the reporter AWAY from the story.

OK, there’s just one HUGE thing wrong with this alibi to me. And to answer that, you have to ask yourself the question “Who IS Karl Rove?”

Answer: Karl Rove is a political operative. Karl Rove is a master manipulator of the media and the public. Karl Rove is KNOWN to spread lies and half-truths to the media and the public to help his political allies. (Remember this: “would it change your opinion about John McCain to know that he’s the father of a black baby?”) Karl Rove is the MASTER of this…

As such, it’s is entirely plausible that he DID intend to “out” Valerie Plame, and knew two things:
1) he wouldn’t have to actually use her name, and
2) if he told a reporter “Oh, don’t look here…there’s no story here!!!” that would actually drive the reporter TOWARD the story. (Like telling a child, “Whatever you do, don’t touch that cookie jar!”)

So, several things follow from this for me:
1) Knowing that Karl Rove knows how to work the media in this way
2) Knowing that that Bush Administration WAS involved in a campaign to smear Joseph Wilson at that very moment

…can’t it be argued that, even Karl Rove’s supposed cover story points to how he actually INTENDED to blow a CIA agent’s cover.

I have heard very few folks talking about this angle, and it seems to me an important one. Rove’s own words would not be enough to implicate him if he was an average guy like me. But he’s not. The thing you know about him is that he often INTENDS to manipulate the media and the story that’s being told by the media.

It’s quite plausible that his own words DO show his own personal intent to do so, given who we know him to be.

UPDATE:
I just found this Mark Shield’s column that is the first anywhere (that I have read…) that tries to make the same connection that I tried to make in this blog…basically, that it defies credulity to image that Karl Rove was seriously talking to reporters in an attempt to steer them away from “bad” information. I say that it defies, credulity. Shield’s puts it more directly and asks “How Dumb Do They Think We Are?”