[Mb-civic] Rove Worrier - Dan Froomkin - Washington POst Op-Ed

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Rove Worrier

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, April 28, 2006; 1:52 PM

It's all highly speculative and ambiguously sourced -- but it sure sounds
like Karl Rove could be in big trouble.

David Shuster reports for MSBNC: "While his supporters continue to put a
good face on his lengthy grand jury testimony, other sources close to Karl
Rove say the presidential adviser is now more worried, not less, that he's
going to get indicted. The sources say Rove was surprised by some of the
questions he was asked, and by the fact the session stretched on for three
and a half hours. . . .

"By all accounts, volunteering to testify to a grand jury is a risky
proposition. Lawyers say it is usually done when there is nothing else that
may stop an indictment."

Shuster says that Fitzgerald's grand jury is meeting again today.

CNN's John King reports: "Publicly, Karl Rove has been quite optimistic
including today when he arrived and talked to his staff. But behind the
scenes, some people view this as quite ominous. Other people who have been
subjects of this investigation, witnesses before the grand jury, have had
their own conduct looked into by the special counsel. When they have been
essentially cleared, some have had to meet with him to tie up some loose
ends.

"They have done that in person, usually at their lawyer's office. Karl
Rove's attorneys hoped that that's where they were at this stage of the
investigation. They had hoped to answer any remaining questions Mr.
Fitzgerald had and then move on and hopefully get from him a clean bill of
health.

"But Mr. Fitzgerald said, 'I will ask my questions before the grand jury.
If you will answer them, you must come before the grand jury.' Many people
view that as an ominous sign. I will say though, Karl Rove has told his
staff, 'Look ahead, be optimistic, get about the business.'

"One of their most urgent priorities now is moving. He lost his office in
the White House staff shake-up. He's moving across the hall. They have to
move the computers, move the desks, move the staff and all that. But he's
also said, 'Book me an aggressive fundraising schedule for Republicans and
start reaching out to candidates who might be in trouble, might need some
advice. Let me meet with them, try to help them.' So he says let's do our
job, this will be OK. But behind the scenes, people are a little bit
nervous about this."

Elisabeth Bumiller and David Johnston write in the New York Times: "Patrick
J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case, is expected
to decide in the next two to three weeks whether to bring perjury charges
against Karl Rove, the powerful adviser to President Bush, lawyers involved
in the case said Thursday. . . .

"Lawyers in the case said Mr. Fitzgerald would spend the coming days
reviewing the transcript of Mr. Rove's three hours of testimony on
Wednesday and weigh it against his previous statements to the grand jury as
well as the testimony of others, including a sworn statement that Mr.
Rove's lawyer gave to the prosecutor earlier this year. . . .

"In his February 2004 testimony, Mr. Rove acknowledged talking to the
columnist Robert D. Novak about Ms. Wilson, but he did not tell the grand
jury about a second conversation he had about her with Matthew Cooper, a
Time magazine reporter. Mr. Novak revealed her name and C.I.A. employment
in a column on July 14, 2003. . . .

"Mr. Rove later voluntarily told the grand jury about the conversation with
Mr. Cooper, and said that he had forgotten about it in the rush of his
daily business. But Mr. Fitzgerald has long been skeptical of Mr. Rove's
account of his forgetfulness, lawyers in the case say. On Wednesday Mr.
Fitzgerald questioned Mr. Rove about how he came to remember his
conversation with Mr. Cooper."

Richard Keil writes for Bloomberg: "Rove testified Wednesday for the fifth
time before a federal grand jury probing the case, and [people familiar
with the case] cited potentially ominous signs for him. Among other things,
they said, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald declined to give him any
assurance after his testimony that he won't be charged. . . .

"Sometime in the first five months of 2004, Rove's attorney Robert Luskin
was alerted to Rove's contact with Cooper during a discussion with another
Time reporter, Viveca Novak. Luskin later found and turned over to
prosecutors an e-mail written by Rove to National Security Adviser Stephen
Hadley shortly after Rove's talk with Cooper. In it, Rove wrote that he
tried to wave the Time reporter away from following the Wilson story. . . .

"Rove testified Wednesday he still doesn't recall having spoken with
Cooper, the people familiar said."

Firedoglake blogger Jane Hamsher does a nice job of analyzing the two
conflicting reports of how Rove is using the Novak-Luskin conversation in
his defense.

It's a little complicated, but in the version of the defense team's
argument related by related by Jim VandeHei of The Washington Post, the
Viveca Novak tip took place before Rove's first grand jury appearance. In
this sequence of events, for Rove to lie to the grand jury about his
conversation with Cooper would have been suicidal -- because he already
knew that people at Time were going to tell Fitzgerald he was Cooper's
source. So since Rove isn't suicidal, there's no other logical explanation
for his testimony except that he honestly didn't remember.

In the version of the defense team's argument related by Shuster , the
Viveca Novak tip came after Rove's first grand jury appearance and led to
Luskin finding the e-mail. Then Rove, faced with the evidence, went back to
the grand jury and acknowledged that the conversation must have taken place.

Novak herself has said he doesn't remember exactly when she met with Luskin.
Rove's New Spokesman

Mark Corallo's name is suddenly popping up as Rove's spokesman.

Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig wrote in The Washington Post in October
that Rove was "making contingency plans, which included having allies begin
to assemble a legal and political team in case he is eventually indicted.

"Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for the Justice Department, would be part
of the public relations defense team, according to a person familiar with
the plan. Corallo is no stranger to high-profile defenses. He was spokesman
for former representative Bob Livingston (R-La.), who was forced to step
aside as the incoming speaker of the House in 1998 after admitting an
extramarital affair."

Corallo specializes in "crisis management" now. Here's his bio .

Corallo told me this morning that he was hired by Luskin in October.
Libby Case Not Dismissed

Toni Locy writes for the Associated Press: "A federal judge refused
Thursday to dismiss charges against I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the former
top White House aide who was indicted on perjury and obstruction charges
last year in the CIA leak scandal.

"In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton turned down a
motion by lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney's one-time top assistant,
who challenged the authority of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to
handle the case. . . .

"Walton said Thursday he did not need to 'look far' in the law to reject
the claim by Libby's defense team."

Here's the Here's the opinion and the order.
Fox Fight

Jim Rutenberg writes in the New York Times: "The naming of the Fox News
commentator Tony Snow as White House press secretary this week seemed to
have created new tension on Thursday with reporters who cover the
president."

Ken Herman of Cox News Service blogs all the details: "The controversy du
jour aboard Air Force One today was one near and dear to the hearts of many
otherwise happy couples: Command and control of the TV tuner.

" 'It's come to my attention that there's been requests -- this is a
serious question -- to turn these TVs on to a station other than Fox, and
that those have been denied,' Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei told
Press Secretary Scott McClellan. 'My question would be, is there a White
House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?'

" 'Never heard of any such thing,' said McClellan, soon to be replaced by
Tony Snow of Fox News, long viewed as an operation that enjoys most favored
network status in the Bush White House. . . .

" 'Well,' said VandeHei, 'they always seem to be tuned to Fox.'

"He went on.

" 'And these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that
you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?'

"No way, said McClellan."

Herman notes that "the record will show that -- other than when the movie
of reporters' choice is showing (and that frequently invites a gender-based
battle over what to watch), Fox is showing on the screens in the press
cabin of Air Force One.

"As McClellan and VandeHei talked TV channels, Agence France Presse
photographer Tim Sloan volunteered that he was the one who raised the issue.

" 'I was the Fox victim,' he said, 'and I was told, the quote was, "No,"
when I asked for CNN. . . . I was told, "We don't watch CNN here. You can
only watch Fox." ' "

Here's the official gaggle transcript.

As CNN reports: "Eighteen minutes after VandeHei raised the issue,
McClellan had resolved it.

" 'We just called up. They're going to be changing it, at your all's
request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN -- from the press
corps.' "

Fox anchor Brit Hume addressed the issue on the Fox News Web site, under
the header: "Can't Handle FOX News?"
Fox Party

Why oh why would anyone think the White House and Fox are particularly cozy?

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts write in The Washington Post about the
"Fox News Sunday" 10th anniversary bash Wednesday night where Fox News
Chairman Roger Ailes was joined by "most of the Bush administration,
including Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett and former Fox
host Tony Snow, just hours after he was named the new Bush spokesman. 'Ten
years ago we could have never gotten the White House press secretary to
come to this party,' joked Ailes."

Also in attendance: Cheney, who, as the Smoking Gun Web site illustrated
last month, requires all televisions in his hotel suites to be preset to
Fox.
Conservatives to Snow: Get Tough

Here's Deroy Murdock 's advice for Snow in the National Review:

"* Showcase the media's shortcomings. . . .

"* Correct journalists' mistakes. . . .

"* Don't leak; speak. . . .

"* Stop helping media foes. The New York Times does not deserve leaks,
exclusives or anything beyond its subscription fees. . . .

"* Cultivate friendly media outlets. Share exclusive interviews,
presidential essays, and special news alerts with sympathetic and fair
journalists. President Bush's next article should appear on the Wall Street
Journal editorial page. Make the New York Times's reporters gnash their
teeth as they quote from the president's exclusive interview with New York
Post correspondent Deborah Orin. Chuckle as incoming CBS newsreader Katie
Couric airs footage of the President's tête-à-tête with Fox News Channel's
Wendell Goler. By favoring the center-right media, the president will
enhance their prestige while the anti-Bush establishment media play
catch-up."

Here's what Fred Barnes suggests in the Weekly Standard:

"Be willing to be disliked. . . .

"Don't address old columns. . . .

"Don't fall for the old advice that the key to recovery is giving the press
more access to president--then they'll learn to like him and cover him more
favorably. Hogwash. Every president in trouble has tried this and it's
never worked. So don't waste the president's time."
Is Snow Just a Flurry?

Michelle Cottle writes in The New Republic: "Insomuch as journalists are
longing for someone to deliver more entertaining sound bites as he spins
them silly and to stroke their famously fragile egos even as he stonewalls
them through the next three years, then, yeah, Snow should dramatically
improve media relations. But beyond that, I'm not sure anyone should get
all that excited about the new era of openness at the Bush bunker.

"Admittedly, the storyline the White House is feeding journalists is genius
in its appeal to their sense of self-importance and wounded pride: We're so
sorry we were mean to you. We know better now. Give us another chance and
we'll be ever so much more open and honest and respectful of your needs.
See! We're even bringing in one of your own to tell us how to make this
relationship work.

"But coming from this administration, such sweet talk is about as credible
as that of an abusive husband trying to woo back his serially battered
bride."
Snow's Politics

Is Snow actually a radical pick for the White House?

Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review unearthed a December 2005
phone interview with Snow:

"Q: A few years ago when I talked to you, you called yourself more
libertarian than Republican. Is that still true?

"A: Yeah, I think so."

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