Rove fight escalates
The partisan fight over Karl Rove exploded onto the Senate floor yesterday, with Democrats trying to strip him of his security clearance and Republicans retaliating by trying to strip the chamber's two top Democrats of theirs.
The moves, which came as amendments to a spending bill, both failed, but not before each side blamed the other for "juvenile" behavior and for poisoning a well of good feelings they said had existed in the past few weeks.
Some senators said the entire exercise was wrong.
"There might be a contest between which of these amendments is more poorly drafted," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, who voted against both amendments.
"We should not be doing this. This is exactly why the American public holds Congress in such low esteem right now," said Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, who also opposed both.
Meanwhile, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife, Valerie Plame, and her identity as a cover CIA employee is the central issue, came to the Capitol to call for President Bush to fire Mr. Rove.
"I believe it is time for Karl Rove to go and time for this president to live up to his promises that anyone involved in this leak would be fired," Mr. Wilson said during a press conference with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, steps away from the Senate floor.
Mr. Bush said in 2003 that he would fire whoever leaked the information about Mrs. Plame's identity. Mr. Rove spoke to Time magazine's Matt Cooper about Mr. Wilson's wife, warning the reporter about Mr. Wilson's false claim that he was sent to Niger by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Democrats have since called repeatedly for Mr. Rove to be fired or at least lose his security clearance as White House deputy chief of staff.
But Republicans said to wait for results from a special prosecutor who is investigating the case and could be considering charges of obstruction of justice or perjury.
A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an "undercover agent," saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency's headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee.
"She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," Fred Rustmann, a covert agent from 1966 to 1990, told The Washington Times.
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Senators voted down an amendment "To protect classified information and to protect our servicemen and women.", attached to a "Department of Homeland Security Appropriations" Bill.  The amendment would have revoked access to classified information from federal employees who disclose the information to unauthorized sources. This followed an attempt by  Senators to strip  Karl Rove of his security clearance.

The amendment comes as George W. Bush declined to reaffirm his pledge to fire any official involved in the leaking of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame after documents  by the  named his chief advisor Karl Rove as a source of the leak.

In a press briefing on September 29th, 2004, White House spokesman , in response to the question "Scott, has anyone — has the president tried to find out who outed the CIA agent? And has he fired anyone in the White House yet?", stated that "The president has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration."  The next day, in a meeting with business people, George W. Bush said that "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."  The   and The   however, misrepresented Bush's promise as a promise to fire only those administration officials who "knowingly" or "illegally" disclosed Plame's identity.

In a press conference this Monday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked if the president stood by his statements made in September 2003, in light of recent evidence that Karl Rove was involved in the leak.  Scott McClellan declined to reaffirm this policy, citing an ongoing investigation.

Pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that Rove wasn't involved in the leak, the White House refused to do so.

"If I were to get into discussing this, I would be getting into discussing an investigation that continues and could be prejudging the outcome of the investigation," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The statements made by Scott McClellan two years ago were made during the investigation that continues and may have prejudiced the outcome of the investigation.  When reporters asked McClellan to explain this inconsistency, McClellan gave the same response.  When asked if the Administration was told not to discuss the investigation while it was ongoing ''after'' he claimed that Karl Rove was not involved in the leak, and not before, Scott McClellan gave the same response. 

Senate  leader Harry Reid of  added this amendment to the Bill:
:''"No federal employee who discloses or has disclosed classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be entitled to hold a security clearance for access to such information."

Senate Majority Leader , -., amended the amendment:
:''"...or any federal officeholder who makes reference to a classified Federal Bureau of Investigation report on the floor of the United States Senate, or any federal officeholder that makes a statement based on a FBI agent¹s comments which is used as propaganda by terrorist organizations thereby putting our servicemen and women at risk, shall not be permitted access to such information or to hold a security clearance for access to such information."

The first part of this amendment was in response to Joe Wilson's correction of George W. Bush's representation of his and his associates' intelligence assessment regarding .  The second was in response to recent criticism of the treatment of prisoners in detention facilities operated by the United States, most notably at  by officials including Senator .

The Republican-controlled Senate ultimately voted down both amendments on July 14th.

 Representative , , has introduced legislation for an investigation that would compel senior administration officials to turn over records relating to the Plame disclosure.