Karl Rove's Treason

Jim Moore writes in the Huffington Post about Karl Rove's duplicity in the the exposure of Valerie Plame, the CIA undercover operative who happened to be the wife of former American diplomat and charge d'affaires in Iraq during the first Iraq "war," Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson, you may recall, is the authoritative source who visited Niger, Africa to investigate Dubya's State of the Union claims that Iraq was buying uranium "yellowcake" from Niger in order to create WMDs. Wilson found no such evidence and exposed Dubya's lie for what it was (not that it ever seemed to matter to neocons and a whole lot of the folks back here in America who, like Dubya/Rove needed, no wanted a war. We had to kick ass after 9/11 and, by God, Dubya/Rove delivered. Moore notes that:

Positioning is Rove's favorite political sport and that's the purpose of this admission. It's a metaphorical "so what" shrug of the shoulders. But the sub text of Rove's words shows another strategy. The presidential advisor undoubtedly knows he is guilty of a federal crime but, for obvious political reasons, he needs it to be something less than treason. Perjury will be his default position. The political harm to be done to his president and his party for a conviction of treason is incalculable.

The legal points of the case against Rove and the other White House Plame leakers almost seem irrelevant. Justice is a kind of bonus if it ever comes to this case. There has never been any real denial by the Bush administration that people working closely with the president made a concerted effort to contact reporters and promote the idea of writing stories about an undercover CIA agent. And yet nobody on the right seems to have any outrage. The confessed unethical behavior, regardless of whether it is legally treason or not, ought to be enough to prompt the "accountability" president to send Rove and his consorts home.

In Texas, progressives are hoping Rove's trail of tears has led him to his own inevitable sadness. And there is the slight chance that the awful weight of all of his wrongs has finally begun to crush Karl Rove. There is a moment of hubris in most great achievements. But I am skeptical that this is Karl's moment. His justice may be long overdue. Unfortunately, however, in Rove's case, the law has been about as reliable as karma.