Frog-Marching Time for Rove?

Newswriter

"Karl Rove is Mr. Disinformation himself. Mr. Smear. By refusing to give up his name, Judy Miller is aiding and abetting government corruption -- not much of a surprise, considering her stellar work in the lead-up to the war and in its early days as she danced around the desert with Super Secret troops declaring WMD found here and there."

Uh, small problem: We don't know whether Miller's source was Rove or someone else.

Carpetbagger

"I think there's ample evidence that Rove is in a world of legal trouble right now after intentionally disclosing information identifying an undercover CIA agent. But put that aside for a moment while the White House criminal investigation continues to unfold.

"Instead, let's consider the defense. Under the best case scenario, if Rove's conversations about Joseph Wilson's wife were not technically illegal, we still have the president's top political aide covering up a White House lie by smearing an opponent, going after his wife, and in the process 'accidentally' exposing an undercover CIA agent. For the White House, that's the best case scenario.

"Indeed, the defense isn't that Rove has acted in an ethical and principled fashion; the defense is that Rove is merely a vicious smear artist who helped disseminate classified information to cover his lies about Iraq. But it's not a problem, according to the defense theory, because he didn't literally leak Plame's name. Yeah, that's persuasive."

Andrew Sullivan

"ROVE WAS COOPER'S SOURCE: Well, we kinda knew this already, but it's good to have it confirmed. The salient fact is that Rove appears to have told Cooper about Wilson's wife working at the CIA before the Novak column appeared. Rove was clearly coordinating a message to discredit Wilson by linking him to his wife, and implying that Wilson had no real authorization from the senior levels of the administration. Rove may not be guilty of a crime, if he did not disclose her name and did not know she was undercover. He is guilty of sleaze and spin. But then that's also hardly news, is it?"

Craig Crawford ponders whether it was all a Rovian plot:

"If Karl Rove planned this -- which I doubt -- he really is a genius:

"1.) He leaks to Time's Matt Cooper in such a way that he avoids the law's intent requirement for criminal liability (Newsweek notes that Cooper's email shows nothing indicating Rove knew or revealed that Valerie Plame was an undercover agent, only that she worked at the CIA).