04.11.06
How They Roll
I expect that W will take a grand offensive against the most recent accusations about W's role in the Valerie Plame case.
Yesterday, W answered a question from a student at a forum at Johns Hopkins about Patrick Fitzgerald's assertion that the White House had declassify information as a means of discrediting Wilson. From Reuters:
Answering questions after a speech, Bush said he declassified an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate in July 2003 for a reason.
"I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said
Interestingly, the Times noted that W fumbled in his response:
Mr. Bush stumbled as he began his response before settling on an answer that sidestepped the question. He said he had ordered the formal declassification of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in July 2003 because "it was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying in my speeches" about Iraq's efforts to reconstitute its weapons program.
Karl Rove will not allow the President to continue to stand by idly while accusations swirl about what he did or didn't do. W. will make a statement soon, building on this answer and his responses recently about executive perogative.