every rove has its thorn

i almost posted this at 1am last night, david corn posted on the huffington post announced that newsweek was about the post this story. rove was definitely matt cooper's source, and definitely before novak printed his story.

so rove and his lawyer are lying, or at least bending the truth so far that it looks false. no surprise there.

newsweek in fact has at least two stories up about it. this one doesn't have much new info. the other article includes excerpts from an email cooper sent to his bureau chief.

It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. "Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation ..." Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, "please don't source this to rove or even WH [White House]" and suggested another reporter check with the CIA.
...
Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip." Wilson's wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger ... "

rove still claims he didn't know plame's name, and nothing in the email suggests that he did. but he still essentially leaked plame's "identity" (wilson's wife/"works at the agency"). and june 11 was three days before novak printed his story.

so it looks like karl rove could be in a lot of trouble. especially if what he has told the grand jury in any way conflicts these facts: in that case, rove would be guilty of perjury. ¶