Scott McClellan: Rove should have been fired over his role in the Plame leak
By John Amato Saturday May 31, 2008 1:15pm
Do you think so? Appearing on MTP this morning, Scotty told Russert that Rove should have been fired over his roll in the Valerie Plame leak case. We all remember the changing narratives that Bush put forth in regards to how he would handle anybody that leaked Plame's name who were part of HIS administration.
Download | play 
Download | play
MR. RUSSERT: The president said at the time that "if someone committed a crime, they'd no longer work in my administration." Do you believe the president should have fired Karl Rove?
MR. McCLELLAN: That's a, that's a question that the president had to make, and he chose not to.
MR. RUSSERT: But what do you think?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I, I think he should have stood by his word. I think the president should have stood by the word that we said, which is if you were involved in this any way, then you would no longer be in this administration. And Karl was involved in it. That would be a tough decision. I don't know if, if there was any crime committed. I don't--I say I just don't know that in the book. But we had higher standards at the White House. The president said he was going to restore honor, integrity. He said we were going to set the highest of standards. We didn't live up to that. When it became known that his top adviser had been involved, then the bar was moved. And the bar was moved to "if anyone is indicted, they would no longer be here."
MR. RUSSERT: So you think they should've been dismissed.MR. McCLELLAN: I think so. I mean, Scooter Libby was, and I, and I think that he should..
MR. RUSSERT: Well, he resigned. But you...
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes. But that was pushed out.
MR. RUSSERT: But you believe Rove--Rove should've, should've left?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think the president should've stood by his word, and that meant Karl should've left.
Login or Register to post comments.
First
rove fired !what a novel idea
Frist ! that felt good! of course Rove should have been
fired, but by that standard Bush would've had to fire himself
since he probably knew everything anyway and may have authorized
it or signed off on Cheneys authorization. I'm just sayin'
Yes, but given their own complicity, then both Cheney and Bush should have been ousted, too.
ntmare countdwn @ 3:
Bush knew everything?! What a novel idea!
What about Cheney? Shouldn't he have been fired, too?
Bugs @ 4:
And as suspected traitors, those two should be on trial for treason.
This is all such nonsense. Rove gets a contract to shove BS daily on Fox and on other networks. The President will leave office unscathed and unindicted and will promptly go about replenishing the coffers. The only folks getting screwed each and every day by these pukes are the American people. Maybe the rest of the world is right about us. We really are a bunch of dumb f***s.
All of them should be in jail including Scott!
"Do you think so?"
I think they should all be hauled in front of a grand jury, under oath and questioned about all their high crimes and conspiracies. Bush and Cheney should both be impeached immediately and removed from office. Appoint Robert Wexler president pro-temp, as pelosi doesn't have the backbone for the job (as demonstrated by her two years of capitulation to prez numbnuts).
Then send them off to The Haugue to stand trial for war crimes they've committed.
And the Dems sat around twiddling their thumbs.
Scott's still not connecting the dots: he says Rove should have been fired; and he's also said the president authorized the leaking of Plame's name. Can a president fire himself?
C'mon, Scott...time to put it all together and stop trying to keep the fire away from the Chimp.
If McClellan really had any balls he would have added, "And you should have been fired too, Tim".
That sounds all well and good, but how can any of this be stuck to John McCain? Karl Rove isn't on the ballot in November unless you find some way to reveal to the public the work he is doing for the McCain campaign while working for FOX.
If what Scott says about the president telling him that he authorized the leak of Plame's name to the press, then the president has committed treason. Which, btw, is a capital offense.
if what Scott says is TRUE..forgive my typo, please!
Well, well, well . . . as per the protocols in all power structures, the disgruntled courtier who is programmed to seek revenge unsheaths his knife and plunges it into the heart of the source of power or those who are closer to the power. Ergo, McClellan carries out his existential role and pushes the shaft deep into Rove's pasty, technocratic heart. It's an ever recurring ritual. Fuck 'em both. And guess who's next??
Therein lies the problem...
Mister Anderson @ 14:
Uh...read this! Rove linked to Mccain by MSM
Stephanopoulos Does What Fox News Refuses To Do, Identifies Rove As An Informal McCain Adviser»
On ABC’s This Week today, host George Stephanopoulos introduced Karl Rove as “President Bush’s former deputy chief of staff and political strategist, an informal adviser to John McCain’s campaign.” But Rove immediately objected to this characterization, saying “I wouldn’t even go that far, informal adviser, no way.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Rove on his relationship:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you pass on information to them, you give them advice.
ROVE: Chit-chat.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Chit-chat, ok. Well I think that that justifies, that that qualifies as informal, but let’s move on.
Watch it:
This isn’t the first time Rove has dismissed his ties to the McCain campaign as just “chit-chat.” But, as ThinkProgress has noted, his influence on the campaign is hard to deny:
– Rove’s consulting firm has been disseminating 2008 electoral map projections to influential media outlets and party operatives. In late March, McCain media advisor Mark McKinnon participated in a public conversation about the campaign with former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd. During the talk, McKinnon displayed maps analyzing the states and their electoral votes; the maps bore the header “Karl Rove & Co.”
– At the beginning of April, McCain embarked on a biography tour to introduce himself to the public, which may have been Rove’s idea. In an April 4 blog post, the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder noted that Rove had laid out the idea for such a tour during a Feb. 20 appearance at the University of Pennsylvania. Rove proceeded to list the very locations that McCain would eventually visit in April. (Although, McCain actually spoke in Prescott, AZ, rather than Rove’s suggested Sedona, AZ.)
– On April 22, while doing on-air coverage of the Pennsylvania primary for Fox News, Rove let slip that he “saw Senator McCain recently at a private gathering” where the general election campaign was discussed.
By correctly identifying Rove as an informal McCain adviser, Stephanopoulos is making an appropriate disclosure that Rove’s part-time employer, Fox News, has thus far been unwilling to do. In the 110 days that Rove has been a Fox News contributor, the network has not once identified Rove’s ties to the campaign, despite the ample evidence of an active relationship.
Comments
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/25/rove-abc-adviser/#comments
Rove(turdblossom) is like crap on the bottom of your shoe......you just can't get rid of it that easy
Cheney should've been fired over that too ...
Scott McClellan: "Rove should have been fired over his role in the Plame leak"
Correction. Rove should have faced a firing squad.
L.A. Confidential @ 11:
Really, you mean they could have done something to stop BUSHCO from committing TREASON.............do tell.
How many people need to be saying "the trash stinks" before we as a country wake up and take the trash out? Is it 5, 10, 50?
I've said this many times over the last 8 years, but it isn't any truer than today. We as a member of the global community owe it to ourselves and our fellow members in that community to take these people out. If we can't enforce the laws in our own country, or enforce the international laws we agree to abide by, then how can we expect any of the other member states to do the same? The people in power right now use the UN codes of conduct as justification for taking out Saddam Husein. Don't those same codes of conduct apply to us? What if we had a foreign policy that had at it's center a threat of weapons of mass destruction?
Sorry, forgot what country I was in.
Long live the King!
L.A. Confidential @ 11:
Not Pelosi, she put a nice bowl of peaches on the table. She misunderstood her responsibility.
Who has an interest in keeping the world from discovering Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons? When Brewster Jennings cover was blown, our ability to monitor Iran was sunk.
Attila the Appeaser @ 26:
Huh??
Ruthless People @ 25:
Mmmmmmmm. Peaches.
Nice one.
I could not agree more. FIRE THEM. Let em have it.
JT
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
These people have created so much death, destruction, and economic instability that I find it hard forgiving or empathizing with Scott McClellan, but there seems to be a calm about him now, he doesn't stammer or appear nervous like he did when he was press secretary.
Breaking news! Clinton wins Puero Rico 93% to 7%.
Slightly OT, but I can't let a conversation about Scott's appearance on MTP pass without noting how striking it was that Russert picked up all the White House attack points to run a total hit piece. There was almost no discussion on any of the merits of what Scott said. Russert simply used previous statements to attack the messenger. That's the role of Rove and the White House, and they do it well. It was totally inappropriate for Russert to pick up the hit squad strategy and run with it like this for the entire segment.
brokenarrow @ 27:
According to Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA counterterrorism operations chief, Plame's specialty was "recruiting agents, [and] sending them to areas where they could access information about proliferation matters, weapons of mass destruction."
Like, for example, Pakistan. Or Turkey.
And didn't Novak reveal on TV a few days later that Valerie Plame's alleged employer – Brewster Jennings & Associates – was a "nonexistent" CIA front company?
Yep.
So is it possible that the neo-crazies were really out to discredit not Joe Wilson, but the CIA covert counter-proliferation operation? Especially Brewster Jennings & Associates?
But why?
Perhaps Chris Deliso has elicited the answer from Sibel Edmonds.
read and weep:
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=8156
DannyEastVillage @ 15:
Impeach him. Then Shoot him!!
Attila@26
Who has an interest in keeping the world from discovering Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons? When Brewster Jennings cover was blown, our ability to monitor Iran was sunk.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is that right! We "monitored" Iraq for 8 years, and still went in. Besides, who are we dictate who has access to atomic power or not. Pakistan and Israel are the real problem. Whatever Iran's says, has no meaning. He is just a marionette. We don't even know if the threats attibuted to him were actually spoken out by him. Remember, Americans don't read or listen or have access or are not interested in foreign news sources. Whatever FOX, CNN, MSNBC, Times magazine, Newsweek, etc, etc and the rest of them say, that's what Americans believe.
L.A. Confidential@11:
And the Dems sat around twiddling their thumbs.
__________________________________
That's pretty decent. I call it: Master bating.
Fil Hussein Oaks @ 7:
And executed, since that's the punishment for traitors in wartime.
Oh Scotty, I'm so proud of you. Now get in the S&M dungeon round boy, I'm not through with you yet.
L.A. Confidential @ 11:
no they didn't! they voted with the repugs.
Captain Bitter Elitist Husein Kangaroo @ 34:
Cheney too. After both are convicted of treason, let the two of them duel it out against each other, then shoot the one left standing!
No one is getting convicted of treason and no one is being sent to war crimes trials. No one is going to be impeached either. Not because your government is one big criminal conspiracy but because a majority of Americans do not want this to happen. End of story.
Now ... can we get back to winning the next election by as much of a majority in both houses as possible?
Time for a lot of posts about what an honourable man McClellan is so that we can magnify the damage he is doing to the GOP.
Ron @ 31:
pssst Puerto Rice can't vote in the General Election, so they cannot influence who wins the White House in November.
that being said you provide no evidence to back your outragious statement.
Clinton wins Puerto Rico primary but Obama gains delegates
TMCnet - 2 minutes ago
With 3 percent of the precincts reporting, the Puerto Rico vote count showed Clinton with 3463 votes, or 67 percent, to Obama's 1724 votes, or 33 percent. ...
http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&ned=us&scoring=d&q=...
FreedomOfInformationAct @ 19:
I love it, impeachment AND war crimes trials. Bring em on!
Someday, All the people of this country will look back on the Bush Administration and say, "those are the guys who sold us OUT " Banishment is the least they deserve. A trial at Nuremburg is not out of the question. The Horror, The Horror....
Karl Rove is gay and an atheist. If the right-wingers will let him get away with those things, I can't imagine there's anything they'd fire him for.
.
Q U E S T I O N:
Why is Scott, the disseminator of the lie, McClellan, the focus of the cameras?
Why aren't his lies at the focus? Or his responsibility in his part? Or is America trying to find blame elsewhere, as is usual?
Who does Scott blame for his LYING?
.
Scott should be taken in front of a grand jury a.s.a.p. If bush gave the green light to leak Plumes name he should be taken to the nearest jail and held for questioning, as well
as rove. Law enforcement has no trouble setting up road blocks ,( illegal search) they have no problem posing as children on line to catch " child predators", (entrapment) They have no problem mining information on every US citizen. ( illegal wiretapping ) Here in NM ,Richardson likes to run roadblocks to catch dwi offenders "for our safety". Last one netted 4 drunk drivers, 1 guy with a joint and almost 200 chicken shit tickets for seat-belts and other small time "crimes". No effort is too small to catch the citizens, but that's where it ends. For a country that is run by the rule of law we are a joke, pot smokers, seat-belt offenders, litterbugs watch out, felons in government or business are okie dokie, no matter what the crime. We have felons ruling our land and if we continue to do nothing our country will go into history books as an example of an evil empire, whose citizens allowed it to happen due to willful ignorance and plain laziness.--CEO
Embittered-Max-Hussein-1, are you more upset that Scott McClellan--a second term press secretary with no policy-making authority--now admits to having at one time deceived the American public, than you are upset that the President of the United States waged a propaganda campaign on behalf of what has become a disastrous war?
” Do you believe the president should have fired Karl Rove?"
Why can't our media figure out how to ask a simple question? The question is, "Did Karl Rove leak the name of Valerie Plame?" WHO CARES if Scott McClellan thinks the president should or should not have fired him?
Timmeh strikes back on behalf of his new BFF dole?
RichStraightWhiteAmericanMale @ 49:
Because, in a land of laws, Scotty's opinion means shit. And that is what you get from him when you ask him a question, his opinion. The important part of what he has to say comes when the Democratically controlled congress and senate subpoena his testimony and then his words have the force of evidence. Either against the people he is indicting or against himself.
Right now, you are watching a fictional reality show. People say whatever the fuck they want, and there is no repercussion to what they say.
BTW, Scotty will never testify under oath while this administration is in power and the do nothing dems controll our other branch of government.
Fat boy does not seem to believe he bears any responsibility.With the book, he gets to join the ranks of others who oppose Bush for the history books, clear his conscience, and make a $$$.
Nice combo!
It's weird seeing his face during interviews, he was always looking at his shoes while doing WH press briefings.
Ari Fleischer was much better, he gave as good as he got, and could talk his way out of the worst situation.
I don't know what to make of McClellan -- a weak man by any standard. Too weak to speak up when it mattered, too weak to quit when he found himself at the epicenter of evil, too weak not to take the money, too weak not to take the healthcare and pension, too weak not to cash in when the choir wants a command singing performance. I haven't learned anything from this book that I didn't already know.
Biggus Diggus @ 53:
Need I remind you he took the health care and pension? Scotty is set for a long time.
I heard that McClellan is gonna be on O'Reilly's show tomorrow night. I guess O'Reilly is gonna figure out just who this imposter is and what he's done with the real Scott McClellan.
;-)
Mister Anderson @ 14:
Doesn't matter if it sticks to Grammpy McCain or not. It is further degradation of the Republican Brand Name.
Every Bush scandal (How many are there? Only Keith Olbermann knows for sure.) is another arrow in the back of the GOP. Every piece of garbage that floated in the Bush Administration that went unchecked by the Republican led congress from 2000 - 2006 is a fair brush to tar every Republican running for Congress or the Senate in 2008. The fact that Scotty McClellan got his stick out and is stirring the pot is a heaven-sent blessing that shouldn't be missed.
McCain is just a sideshow. No disrespect to Senator McCain. He's a good man who is wrong on the issues and wrong for America and bears the cross of George W. Bush and the sins of the Republican party on his old tired shoulders.
The real showdown is how hard we can kick the shit out of the Republican lying sacks of liquid crap. If they lack a sufficient number of legislators, say less then a 1/3 in each house, bingo.
The end of the Republican Party is no less then they deserve. These full-of-themselves jack-offs started an immoral and unjustified war of preemption with lies and official PROPAGANDA FOR DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION. That is in violation of the law. In a democracy like ours, a party that used deception to govern with deserves the death penalty for treason.
Mike Mid City @ 56:
McCain has been defecated upon by GWB since 2000 and he continues to take it all with a bizarre embracing of all things Bush. A man who still had his self-respect would have stood up and fought long ago. McCain would actually be a threat to Obama if McCain basically denounced Bush and said he'd do thing differently. I do give McCain credit for calling out Rumsfeld as an incompetent ninny before it was okay for Republicans to pile on.
Bugs @ 4:
Exactly. Oh the books that will be written.
FreedomOfInformationAct @ 42:
Clinton Only Needs 153% of Remaining Delegates
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2008-06-01 00:31. Elections
By David Swanson
So, the Democratic National Committee has bent the rules for Senator Clinton and effectively given her 87 delegates and Senator Obama 63 from two states that were not supposed to be counted. That gives Clinton a grand total of 1,580 pledged (more or less) delegates, and Obama 1,711. While, technically that still leaves Obama with "the lead," there are 86 pledged delegates remaining to be awarded in Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota. This means that Clinton can still pull it out if she picks up 153 percent of the remaining delegates, an improvement on the 181 percent she would have needed to pick up if not for the Michigan-Florida deal.
Clinton clearly has the momentum. In addition, the backroom deal on Michigan and Florida's "pledged" delegates helps to blur the line between pledged delegates (awarded by actual voters and caucus goers, except in Florida and Michigan) and super delegates (awarded by Party control freaks). The distinction is, of course, blurred to virtual nonexistence by any media story covering the election, as over 80 percent of media stories now do.
The above calculation doesn't count the 19 delegates whom John Edwards has encouraged to back Obama, or the delegates pledged to Clinton who have begun flipping for Obama. It also doesn't count the super delegates, with whom Obama holds a substantial lead, but whom Clinton fully expects to win over en masse any day now.
Experts agree that Clinton stands a good and improving chance of pulling out a victory in the end, given her momentum, determination, and appeal to dumb people. Like soccer moms and Jews for Buchanan before them, dumb people are shaking up this election and coming into their own as an identity group with ever rising "self pride." The group intentionally avoids the term "self esteem" as being too difficult to spell.
"Dumb People for Hilary" [sic] bumper stickers are showing up across the country and being shipped by the truck load to South Dakota, Montana, and Puerto Rico. (The trucks to Puerto Rico have been driving off bridges in the Florida Keys.) The stickers and other "dumb people" paraphernalia are being paid for by the Clinton campaign, even while the campaign's supporters have organized to stop making contributions and instead buy lottery tickets in all 50 states.
While her husband's campaign headquarters in 1992 famously posted a sign reading "It's the economy, stupid," Hillary Clinton's now boasts a three-foot high quote from H.L. Mencken:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
Senator Obama has faltered in trying to portray himself as one of the dumb people too, but Senator McCain has taken advantage of the latest election trend in a major way by inviting President Bush to join him on the campaign trail.
article and comments
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33804
PaybackisaB!tch @ 59:
latest news...hot off the presses
Clinton wins Puerto Rico but Obama gains delegates
WBT, NC - 4 minutes ago
With 85 percent of the precincts reporting, the Puerto Rico vote count showed Clinton with 219536 votes, or 68 percent, to Obama's 102304, or 32 percent. ...
How it transpired:
MR. RUSSERT: The president said at the time that “if someone committed a crime, they’d no longer work in my administration.” Do you believe the president should have fired Karl Rove?
MR. McCLELLAN: That’s a, that’s a question that the president had to make, and he chose not to.
What he should have said:
MR. RUSSERT: The president said at the time that “if someone committed a crime, they’d no longer work in my administration.” Do you believe the president should have fired Karl Rove?
MR. McCLELLAN: Do you believe Mr. Rove should be on television pretending to be a journalist?
Biggus Diggus wrote,
Scott McClellan's revelations aren't for people like you, who already know that Bush lied. It's for the many other people out there (yes, they do exist, and they're not all Republicans) who didn't know it.
David @ 62:
Yes it's for the all Bush methane breathing right who won't hear it from anyone but the highest insiders to Bush, for those who couldn't believe Powell, Wilkerson, Armitage, Tenet, Kay, and those damn 8 liberal generals on the ground. But there will still be non-believers because you know they got faith.
Bravo, Scotty, don't back down you are making the corporate media look like the sycophant wimps they are...you should give all the proceeds of your book to the maimed and starving children of Iraq as well as to the families of injured and dead vets...then demand of all the media assholes to do the same...stay strong Scotty you're doing your country a great service in waking us up...God knows we need to be told the truth, your courage is exemplary, like the winter soldiers, but you need to give all the proceeds away to prove your doing it for truth and to protect the Constitution and not for money your integrity is on the line!
JustSickOfIt @ 51:
But you know what? Our congress, Democrats included, also don't know how to ask a simple question. Or how to follow up on questions that witnesses evade. I have no confidence that our press or our congress will actually nail anybody -- and given the overwhelming evidence of their criminality it should be so easy.
FreedomOfInformationAct @ 42:
They can, actually, since their vote counts as much as any other at the convention. In the event of a catastrophe they could make a difference when choosing between John Edwards and the official corporate-approved candidate of people like this.
William 'the bloody rag' Kristol claimed TWICE today that Scotty was fired from his job...hence, he wrote the unpleasant book about herr dubyah. Of course, none of the reich-wing hacks on faux dare to challenge village idiot.
I applaud McClellan. I wonder how Russert was able to handle a person that speaks the truth.
Russert also had his "15 minutes of fame" in the Scooter Libby trial. Russert acts more like a celebrity than a newsman.
He is soooooo monotonous......his only method of questioning is to find a news clip of something said in 1952 and ask them why they have changed their minds. This is always expected,uninteresting and a poor strategy in interviewing anyone. Open you eyes, NBC.
Timmeh TRIED to beat up on Scottie for the whoole interview. Most of his questions went like:
"Mr. McClellan, don't you feel like a complete DIRT BALL and SKUM BAG for passing on the president's lies to up poor innicent journalists?"
Scottie held up pretty well under Russert's punishing torrent of accusatory questions.
I think so as well. Rove should have been fired and the President should have kept his word on it. But, Bush hasn't kept his word on much anything...........................
Does Bush have a "word" to keep.?
It sure is nice to watch little Scotty growing up right before our very eyes.
Rove played a roll in the Plame leak case? Ironically, he does resemble the Pillsbury Dough Boy. LOL!
No, he should have been incarcerated and tried for treason.
NO! I do not believe Rove should have been fired! I believe he should have been given a life prison sentence as required by law!
Scotty should have been fired for his incessant lies that he knew were lies when he was spokesman...but then again, a truth-telling WH spokesperson is impossible in this day and age.
While I admire his choice to come clean, he should be ashamed of himself for what he did when he was spokesman. For that, he deserves ZERO admiration or cred.
Isn't this TELL-ALL book a little late?
'Rove shoulda been fired'... Gee ya think??!! JD
Login or Register to post comments.