Karl Rove

I’d like my pals on the right, who are cooking up reasons to justify Rove faster than shit through a goose, to take the Michael Moore test. If Mr. Moore had revealed the identity of a covert operative, whether she was on active assignment or not, whether he gave the name explicitly or just laid out for a reporter the means to find out, whether he even intended to reveal her identity or not, would you advocate that Moore merely be incarcerated for life, or would you go so far as to call for the death penalty as the traditional punishment for treason? Just as I correctly predicted that conservatives, sensing the guilty stench of their man, would try to downplay a crime the severity of which is simply un-down-playable, let me go so far as to guarantee that you would have heard the words “death penalty” and “Michael Moore” in the same sentence on the state-run Fox News Channel within a week. I suppose that squares with the slap on the wrist that they’re hoping their buddy Karl “The Season for Treason” Rove gets. So very principled, the right.

Personally, I think orange is Karl Rove’s color. He’s really more of an autumn than a spring. And I hear that leg irons are this fall’s must-have accessory. Here’s hoping that today is the Labor Day to Rove’s summer of sleaze. You can wear orange after Labor Day, can’t you? Guilty or not, though, the more time Rove has to spend defending himself, the more time Bush is out on his own. Seeing as nearly every solo press appearance Bush has scheduled has been an unmitigated failure, we all know how that goes. I can hardly wait.

P.S. Welcome Ezra Klein, Kevin Drum and New Patriot readers. I'm pretty new to blogging so being linked to, even through the comments, is still quite a thrill. Stay a while if you're so inclined. Hopefully there's something here for everybody to enjoy.