July 12, 2005 - They say that if you remember the Sixties you weren’t really there. Perhaps President Bush remembers some of that cloudy decade but if he does it really isn’t much. He may have floated through the folk song era flying well above the fray but this week he may be reflecting on the lyric to one of Harry Bellefonte’s hits. The song opened with:”A Roving, A Roving, Since Roving’s been my Rue-Eye-In”. Today the Whitehouse has discovered a new reverence for the sanctity of judicial investigation, declining to comment on the revelations that the very idea that Karl Rove had anything to do with outing Valerie Plame is not so preposterous after all. Scott McClellan would really like to talk about it but, with an investigation going on this really isn’t the right time.

Scotty may want to study one of his predecessors as a spokesman for a troubled Presidency. It was Ron Ziegler who had to declare the unequivocal denials of his President “inoperable” as the truth oozed out. But then Ron had to deal with the likes of Chuck Colson and the whole Watergate team. Scotty has it easier. He just has to deal with the likes of Karl, Dick, and Don.

Two years ago the President told us that he would not tolerate anyone in his administration who would leak the identity of a CIA agent. He promised that anyone who was found to have been involved would not be in the Administration. That promise is now inoperable. The new line is that Karl did not leak the identity of a CIA agent because he did not refer to her by name. Instead he just called her “Wilson’s wife”. Surely we can’t think that in the USA describing someone as “Wilson’s wife” could not possibly compromise her identity. The other line of defense is that Karl was not trying to discredit Wilson by outing his wife. He was just trying to warn a journalist off of an inaccurate story about Nigerien Yellowcake. He was being a kind of “Shallow Throat” for the Bush Administration without the drama of potted palms and parking garages.

The President is noted for his deep loyalty to his friends. He is not so noted for his loyalty to the American system or the common welfare of the common folk. Compared to the contribution of Karl to the Bush welfare what is one CIA spy more or less? That is why the statement that anyone involved in outing Valerie Plame would be leaving is now inoperable. The President is ready to go a roving again and again and again.