Here Come the Gangsters

This YouTube clip of Karl Rove at the White House Radio and Television Correspondents’ dinner has become an overnight sensation. We knew he was a gangsta. We knew he beat the rap for outing Valerie Plame. Too bad he isn’t wearing fashionable prison pinstripes.

NPR’s Talk of the Nation had a segment this afternoon about YouTube and creativity. The news peg was this clip of MC Karl. The guest was Keith Schneider, contributing writer for The New York Times.

This is the CIA Agent Exposed by Bush's Hacks

Photo souce: NYT 031607

Valerie Plame Wilson spoke publicly yesterday for the first time since her covert identity as a CIA agent was exposed by White House hacks in July 2003. She testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She’s said to be writing a book about her outing. If she didn’t have a movie deal when she woke up yesterday, she does now

The committee’s web site has video of the complete hearing. I’m still looking for the Congressional Record transcript.

Yesterday’s NYT coverage played the story pretty straight. NPR had the juicy sound bites and whirr of paparazzi cameras. YouTube has video clips from the hearing, including Plame’s opening statement. Firedoglake live-blogged it extensively;see Enter “The Wife” for starters . And Dana Milbank wrote the movie review.

Milbank noted that Plame’s platinum blonde hair revealed dark roots, always a telling detail in Washington politics. He built a riff around the number of times “passionately” popped out in the testimony. Sure, passion never hurt a movie deal, and Plame milked the media moment for everything it was worth. To do anything else would be Un-American.

NPR’s Andrea Seabrook was more charitable this morning. She understood that a big part of Valerie Plame’s allure stems from simple curiosity, finally, just to see her. She stayed out of the media spotlight for four years, letting her husband Joe Wilson do the talk shows. She famously appeared on a Vanity Fair cover wearing Jackie O sunglasses; otherwise, the public only got glimpses of her. The exaggeration-prone Washington gossip mill rumored that the elusive spy was “drop dead gorgeous,” Seabrook said. “This time the gossip mill got it right.”

Valerie Plame out-Oli-ied Oliver North in terms of stealing the show. All he had was a square jaw and Marine Corps dress blue. She’s a mix of 007 + blond bombshell.

It’s well-known that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and their fellow-travelers would start a war or sell their grandmothers for political gain. In the Plame case, they exposed a CIA agent then tried to cover it up. In retrospect, they should have sacrificed grandma.

Valerie Plame Footnotes

Vanity Fair cover/source: Google cache

Valerie Plame - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia My guess is this is a highly contested, highly fungible page in the Wiki wars. The documentation and links (as of today) are extensive.
to Valerie_Plame CIA Scooter_Libby Bush politics Iraq 2dk_prep z07_3

Firedoglake - Firedoglake weblog » CIA Leak Case
FDL's blog coverage flows relentlessly like the Mighty Mississippi.
to Valerie_Plame CIA Scooter_Libby Bush politics 2dk_prep z07_3

What I Didn't Find in Africa - Joseph Wilson - NYT - 070603
The op-ed that started the Bush administration's retaliation against Wilson and his wife, a CIA agent outed by Cheney, Rove, Libby, et al.
to Bush politics cheney Iraq war_drums NYT 2dk_prep Valerie_Plame CIA

Mission To Niger - Robert Novak - Washington Post - 071403
The infamous newspaper column that exposed Valerie Plame's identity. Why wasn't Novak thrown in the slammer like Judith Miller?
to Valerie_Plame CIA Iraq Scooter_Libby Bush politics WaPo 2dk_prep z07_3

Vanity Fair's profile on Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame
Bootleg text from Jim Gilliam's blog - 011704.
to Valerie_Plame CIA 2dk_prep z07_3 ... saved by 1 other person ... just posted

Richard Armitage’s Role in Plame Case - Newsweek 082706
"Armitage's central role as the primary source on Plame is detailed for the first time in "Hubris," which recounts the leak case and the inside battles at the CIA and White House in the run-up to the war. The disclosures about Armitage, gleaned from inter
to politics media security Iraq Valerie_Plame Scooter_Libby CIA 2dk_prep z06_08