Plame Case Cracks Open: IT WAS ROVE!

The source who leaked the identity of CIA Agent Valerie Plame to Time reporter Matt Cooper has been revealed - and as Joe Wilson suspected, it's Bush White House svengali Karl Rove.

Editor and Publisher has the breaking news:

Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, now claims that at least two authoritative sources have confirmed that one name is top White House mastermind Karl Rove.

This afternoon, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff confirmed that Cooper did indeed talk to Rove for his story, but Rove's lawyer denied he was the key leaker in the case.

You can see the germ of Karl Rove's defence right there - his lawyers will argue that he was "A" source, but not "THE KEY" source of the story. So will Rove name names and identify the KEY source of the story? Or will he invoke his Consitutional rights and do jail time instead? Oooh, the irony....!

Funny how things change, eh? One minute there are two reporters facing jail time for refusing to disclose their source in the case, the next thing you know their source himself is the one facing jail time. And how ironic that Karl Rove, a man who helped create the environment where these reporters' Constitutional rights are ignored, should himself now become a potential victim of the same Draconian laws he helped implement.

And remember, Rove habitually assaults others for not supporting the troops, or for endangering the lives of US servicemen by not adequately supporting his dirty little war, yet he himself is now proven to have endangered the life of a CIA Agent and her lifetime of contacts (in the WMD field, no less).

Newsweek breaks the story here, including background info and quotes from Rove's lawyers.

There's still much more to come on this intriguing case. Kos has this timely reminder from last year's news:

Adding to the growing intrigue in the Plame case, the grand jury investigating the leak of the covert CIA operative's name has subpoenaed a wide range of White House documents, including records of telephone calls from Air Force One and information relating to an internal working group dealing with Iraq, government sources confirmed to CNN on Friday.