The Impeachment Question

Here is Fitzgerald's response to Cooper.

"Journalist Margaret Carlson argues in a letter submitted on his behalf that: 'Journalists must honor their promises which protect the bad along with the good. We can't separate them like the darks and the whites in the laundry.' . . .

"Cooper and Carlson should not underestimate either the press' ability or responsibility to separate the good from the bad. First, Cooper's own article noted that the conduct of the officials involved an attack on an administration critic, not whistleblowing. Second, at a time when journalists seek a reporter's privilege akin to the attorney-client privilege, they ought recognize that an attorney can be compelled to testify if his client communicates to the attorney for the purpose of committing a crime or fraud (or where the client waives the privilege). Third, journalists are not entitled to promise complete confidentiality -- no one in America is. . . .

"Finally, by Cooper's own account, his source's confidentiality has been mooted by the production of relevant documents by Time Inc. Given the above, Cooper fails to meet his burden to show that there is no reasonable possibility that confinement will coerce him to testify since Cooper going to jail would be entirely pointless."

And here is Fitzgerald's response to Miller.

"As set forth below, Special Counsel opposes the motion for reconsideration because it is based upon the flawed assertion that there is no realistic possibility that confinement would be effective in obtaining Miller's compliance with this Court's lawful order to provide testimony and documents to the grand jury. Special Counsel further opposes the request that Miller, unlike other contemnors, either be confined at home or at a residential prison camp for her convenience while she defies this Court's order."

Blunt is one way of describing it.

Rove Doesn't Speak -- About Plame

And what about the man of the hour? We just found out this weekend that Rove spoke with Cooper during the critical period in July 2003. What did he say? Where does he fit into the investigation? What does he know?

Leonnig writes: "At a lunch meeting yesterday with Washington Post reporters and editors, Rove declined to answer questions about the Plame case."

The Raw Story Web site publishes a letter to Bush drafted by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.): "We write in order to urge that you require your Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, to either come forward immediately to explain his role in the Valerie Plame matter or to resign from your Administration."

Climate (No) Change

Reuters reports: "President Bush has not shifted his position on climate policy, a White House spokeswoman said on Tuesday ahead of the Group of Eight summit. . . .

"In response to speculation in the British media that the U.S. administration was softening its stance ahead of the meeting, the spokeswoman said this was not the case.

" 'President Bush has stated his climate policy in 2001 and it remains the same,' Michele St. Martin, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said from Washington.

" 'He believes that in order to address climate change it must be through the development and deployment of clean energy technologies,' she said."

Joshing Around

Bush met with several foreign print journalists last Thursday, and Agence France Presse White House correspondent Olivier Knox had several spirited exchanges with the president. Here's the transcript.

Back at an April 28 news conference, Bush -- who almost always calls reporters by their nicknames or first names -- called on "Mr. Knox."

Here's the first time Bush called on Knox at Thursday's roundtable:

Bush: "Give me your name again."

Knox: "Olivier. You can call me Mr. Knox, that's fine. (Laughter.)"

Bush: "Pretty good. Pretty good retort. (Laughter.) Very good. Olivier."

Later, after posing questions about the Iranian president and about Darfur, Knox asked about Laura Bush's upcoming trip to Africa. She's going there directly from Europe.

As Knox explained to me in an e-mail: "I wanted to make it a casual question, so I referred to him coming home 'stag.' He seemed a tiny bit put off at first, then played off the comment."

Indeed, it turned into an extended and humorous back and forth on Knox's word choice, words in other languages, and eventually NBC News's White House correspondent David Gregory.

Gregory, in a joint press availability in 2002, famously asked French President Jacques Chirac a question -- in French.

Bush mocked Gregory in public at the time -- "The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental," Bush said. On Thursday, he had another laugh about it -- "classic moment, wasn't it?" he asked -- but then insisted: "This is all off the record, because this will hurt Gregory's feelings."

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Much fuss is being made over the president as he turns 59 today.

The celebration started Monday night, as the Bushes had some friends over to the White House to watch the fireworks and share a birthday cake.

This morning, the Danish prime minister welcomed Bush to his official summer residence with a small brass band playing "Happy Birthday," then presented Bush with a Danish birthday breakfast.

"I would strongly recommend the Danish birthday cake," Bush said in this morning's public remarks.

Agence France Presse reports that the cake was shaped like a cowboy hat and lasso, and that Bush received a Greenland stamp collection from the prime minister as a birthday present.

Then it was off to lunch with Queen Margrethe II at Fredensborg Palace. After the toasts, according to a pool report from USA Today's Judy Keen, "an unseen band began to play and waiters came in bearing a big round cake encircled with burning candles and one in the middle. The president took an exaggerated big breath, leaned over and blew out some of them. He then mock-staggered backward and blew again. The queen extinguished a couple too. Lots of applause."

Big Twin News

John Donnelly reports in the Boston Globe that Barbara Bush is apparently working in near anonymity as a volunteer at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

"While no one disputes that she has been in Cape Town for the last six weeks, nearly everything about her stay is shrouded in mystery. Hospital officials yesterday refused to confirm her presence, and many hospital workers ducked questions about Barbara Bush's role at one of the premier health facilities in Africa for children with AIDS and other ailments.

"A White House official, Peter Watkins, confirmed yesterday that her mother, Laura Bush, will visit Barbara in South Africa later this week, after the Group of Eight summit in Scotland where President Bush and other leaders of the industrialized world will consider how they can help ease poverty in Africa. The official said Laura Bush and her other daughter, Jenna, will spend five days with Barbara and then will travel to other African countries to speak about AIDS relief and education initiatives. . . .

"A hospital administrator . . . said that friends had told her that Bush volunteered a few times a week in the children's burn unit."