buzz twang

The Sopranos? No, Larry Telford, “incumbent retention director” of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to Mike Murphy, a political neophyte running in the Texas Republican primary for the US House of Representatives. New York Congressman Tom Reynolds, chairman of the NRCC also called Murphy, who has no prior political experience and has raised virtually no cash.

“Reynolds dropped plenty of big names, including Karl Rove, chief political strategist for the president. Reynolds promised that, should Murphy put his party first, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay would be made aware and that he ‘wouldn’t forget it.’”

The NRCC’s communication director “denied that the party tried to squash District 4′s grassroots challenger with bluster….[and] said that Karl Rove’s name had not been dropped in either conversation. He also denied that either caller had in any way suggested that running might ruin Murphy’s political career and make him an enemy of the White House.”

However, Reynolds and Telford made the mistake of having these conversations with Murphy while he was taping the phone calls. (Emphasis mine. Slighty edited for clarity) (c/o HippoRider @ Daily Kos)

Ah yes. Nothing like your own voice to come back and bite you in the ass. And, the really funny thing about this? From the article: “After hearing the tapes, the Observer called Forti back. He said he hadn’t fibbed; the talks between Murphy and the party honchos had been incorrectly ‘characterized,’ which led to a ‘misunderstanding.’” So, even after the Observer lets Forti know they’ve heard the taped conversation, Forti still tries to spin it as up is down, down is up. Dumb as a bag of hammers.

President Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, told the FBI in an interview last October that he circulated and discussed damaging information regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame with others in the White House, outside political consultants, and journalists, according to a government official and an attorney familiar with the ongoing special counsel’s investigation of the matter.

But Rove also adamantly insisted to the FBI that he was not the administration official who leaked the information that Plame was a covert CIA operative to conservative columnist Robert Novak last July. Rather, Rove insisted, he had only circulated information about Plame after it had appeared in Novak’s column. He also told the FBI, the same sources said, that circulating the information was a legitimate means to counter what he claimed was politically motivated criticism of the Bush administration by Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. (Emphasis mine)

Lest anyone forget, outing a CIA operative during time of war is a very serious offense, considered by most as a crime of treason. To recap, Rove stated that he was not responsible for the intitial leak to Novak, but did assist in the dissemination of that information ex post facto, yet such dissemination was okay since it was a means to counter political criticism of the Bush Administration.

Such conclusions of moral logic should be of great concern to every single American citizen, for essentially, if found to be true, Rove’s actions and statement of complicity essentially admit that he placed a person’s life, a person in service to the USA, at great risk. Rove’s alledged actions also favored the Bush Administration’s political survival over the war on terror. It is also, very likely, a serious crime of treason. Watch as the case unfolds how the right-wing attempts, like Rove, to justify it and create wiggle room. And, we all know if it was a Democratic administration that outed a CIA agent, that the right-wing would be screaming for blood.

Brought to you by Citizens Against Karl Rove Talkin’ Pointz™