Palast cuts through the crap

Judy, Karl Rove ain't no "source." A confidential source -- and I've worked with many -- is an insider ready to put himself on the line to blow the whistle on an official lie or hidden danger. I would protect a source's name with my life and fortune as would any journalist who's not a craven jerk (the Managing Editor of Time Magazine comes to mind).

But the weasel who whispered "Valerie Plame" in Miller's ear was no source. Whether it was Karl Rove or some other Rove-tron inside the Bush regime (and no one outside Bush's band would have had this information), this was an official using his official info to commit a crime for the sole purpose of punishing a real whistleblower, Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, for questioning our President's mythological premise for war in Iraq.

— Gregory Palast, Mr. Rove and the Access of Evil

He slices... He dices... Look at 'im go!

Should also mention: I'd be about the last guy on the planet to deny the player currently talking through his lawyer's got some serious chops, conniving weasel-wise. But in case anyone's wondering, no, this particular set of shenanigans hardly qualifies as anything original or clever. My reporting experience ain't mostly big league, but at any level of politics, I can assure you there are any number of two-bit wannabe hatchetmen in ill-fitting cheap suits who'll happily bound off the record to take a few shots at a rival, offer up anything to damage them. Ain't nothin' new. I knew lots of 'em, in the day, and most of those were low-rung types who only got elected 'cos they called slightly more neighbours than their rivals. Otherwise, they probably couldn't strategize their way out of a wet paper bag. Smart reporters learn not to become such low-life's tools.

Smart reporters, I repeat and emphasize.