Everyone else in America (at least everyone with a blog) is obsessed with Valerie Plame, so why not me? It's starting to look like they've got Karl Rove - that's the name that's been tossed around all along - and it's the name that makes the most sense - Bush's advisor, his hatchet man - it's believable. It's still speculation, no one is going on the record with this, but it makes sense...

I am too lazy to go through the blogs and news sites collecting sources, it's too late, I just want to speculate and think about it some. [In the morning, though, I can drop a few in: Juan Cole has a good summary up, for instance. My rant is still more rant than argument, the references are broad, most of the points I make have been discussed throughout the blogosphere and documented (if they can be) somewhere.] I have read some defenses - that Wilson was a partisan democrat and thus it is worse that he be sent to investigate the yellowcake claims than that his wife's cia status was blown... that is plum crazy, you know, since he was chosen by the white House itself, but Cheney and company - who must have known his views, [I'm not positive of this, who asked whom, I admit] and who chose him because he was ideally suited for the job - former ambassador to Gabon, former ambassador (I think) to Iraq - in other words, a man with expertise in Africa and the Miiddle East - I mean Jesus! How out of touch - how desperate to slam someone do you have to be to ignore that? To try to pretend that is something other than what it is - he was obviously well qualified for the job - he had no stake in protecting Saddam Hussein - he was ignored, and - in a sense - his integrity besmirched by the administration's refusal to take his word for this - so then, his political views, plus the sense of betrayal (I'm guessing) kicked in - and he went public, when this issue went public. All the rest - the whining that he's a democrat - that he's incompetent - that he was chosen as a favor to his wife - all that bullshit is, transparently, what it is - a smear - lies, damned lies, and plain foolishnesss.

Okay, that was one. Or - his wife wasn't covert? Uh - the CIA seems to have squashed that. Though this brings up another point - what if she weren't really CIA? then - she's still being put in danger by the allegation - this is still ging to fuck up her career, whatever her career might be - granted, then, it is probably not a felony, it is certainly not treason or "endangering national security" - but that's a vile thing to do, and is bound to be legally actionable. It's childish - a nasty, vindictive smear. That's if it were a lie. But true - well...

However - and I have to stop this for the moment, as the hour is growing late - this brings me to pure speculation. everyone has a theory - why not me? Here is mine - worth absolutely nothing, but if it turns out to be true I can point people here and say, I told you so! My theory is, this is my theory and here it is: It makes sense to mne that Rove and maybe someone like Ari Fleischer did this - made the calls - decided to nail wilson by attacking his wife. But - the question - how could Rove know she was CIA? Well - perhaps this - someone had to tell him - what if the original leaker lied? told him she was an analyst - or something like that? Something other than a covert operator? So that when Rove and Fleischer (if it's them) spread it around Washington, they did not think she was covert, just, not real public. hat's sort of what Novak claims - he thought she was an analyst, not a spy - what if someone else peddled the tale to Rove, and he peddled it (warped) to the press? It there is a way to spin this to Rove's advantage, I bet they try something like that. But - it wouldn't surprise me - the phone work was likely done by the political wing - the actual outing probably came from Cheney's office - that's my guess.