Exclusive: GOP talking points on Rove seek to discredit Wilson

Well, okay, it's not actually my exclusive. From Raw Story courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

This document contains message points and an extended briefing documenting the blatant partisan political attack on Karl Rove. Mr. Rove was attempting to advise a reporter about potential inaccuracies in a story that he was writing that later, were proved to be incorrect. The attacks by Democrats are clearly political in nature.

And

* Once Again, Democrats Are Engaging in Blatant Political Attacks

* Karl Rove Discouraged A Reporter From Writing A False Story Based On A False Premise.

* The False Premise Was Joe Wilson's Allegation That The Vice President Sent Him To Niger.

* The Senate Select Committee On Intelligence Confirmed That Rove Was Right And Wilson Was Wrong: The Vice President Didn't Send Wilson Anywhere.

* Both The Senate Select Committee On Intelligence And The CIA Found Assessments Wilson Made In His Report Were Wrong.

* Karl Rove Has Fully Complied With This Investigation For More Than A Year And Has Permitted Any Reporter He Spoke With About Joe Wilson To Discuss Their Conversations.

Click here for the rest.

Of course, none of this even attempts to refute what Wilson actually discovered: Bush was lying to the American public about Iraq having a nuclear weapons program in order to manufacture a justification for invasion--indeed, this is the big backdrop in front of which this Rove-leak drama is being performed, as observed Wednesday by NPR's Daniel Shorr. Really, this Republican document, which seems to be the real deal, contains no surprising information at all; it's completely consistent with what Republicans have been saying all day when asked about the Rove scandal.

What's interesting about it is that it gives a great deal of insight into how the GOP approaches inconvenient political facts; they deny, distort, and redirect. Obviously, Democrat attacks against Rove cannot be categorized as "partisan" simply because the Democrats are doing the attacking--Rove is at the center of an investigation of a major crime; that makes him "fair game," to borrow a phrase he once used to describe Valerie Plame to Chris Matthews. Really, the lock-step defense of Rove by Republicans when he's already been caught in a big lie is what's partisan.

The justification of Rove's outing of an undercover CIA agent as an attempt to "discourage a reporter from writing a false story" is quite a piece of work. Notice how the "false" aspect is essentially inconsequential: who gives a fuck whether Cheney or Plame sent Wilson to Africa? In no way does that change the fact that Wilson proved Bush was lying about WMD. In no way does that justify blowing the cover of a CIA agent. It's all about distorting and redirecting; make the debate about something else, no matter how absurd, so we don't have to talk about the real issues.

What sucks is that, despite the press' newfound sense of aggression on this issue, these talking points seem to be working to an extent: the media, duty bound to report "the other side," gave these ideas a full airing on Wednesday, even though they're an obvious bunch of hooey. That's one reason why the Republicans are so powerful; they know exactly how to pull reporters' strings, how to get them to faithfully report their constant stream of bullshit. There's one Republican I know of, however, who seems to be much more interested in the truth, and that's special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, the man who's currently sending shivers up President Bush's spine. Regardless of of all the punditry and talking points, Fitzgerald appears to be taking his job seriously, and sooner or later we'll all know just how guilty Rove actually is.

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