Okay, you have to read this article in the NY Daily News. One of Bush's "counselors" is off the record telling reporters that Bush was really, really pissed at Karl Rove over the Plame thing. But, and this is key, Bush wasn't mad because Rove leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent during the time of war. No, he was mad that his people did it so poorly:
Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.So, it wasn't what they did that made Bush angry. It was how they did it.
But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussen tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.
A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.
"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way," the source said.
Bush had no problem sacrificing national security for smear politics. That should make us all feel safer.
