Operation get Rove: a misguided--and bungling--lynch mob.(POLITICS)(Karl Rove)

KARL ROVE certainly doesn't act like a guilty man. Caught in the middle of the "Plamegate" leak investigation, accused of "smearing" Bush critic Joseph Wilson and "outing" Wilson's CIA-agent wife, Valerie Plame, Rove has been going about his normal duties at the White House; people close to him say his daily schedule is packed, as always, with matters like judicial nominations, Social Security, and general White House stuff. His lawyer tells NATIONAL REVIEW that Rove has been assured by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he is not a target of the investigation. Rove has testified before the grand jury three times. And he has released any reporter who talked to him about the Plame/Wilson affair from any pledge of confidentiality.

It's not exactly the profile of a man with something to hide. Yet in spite of it all, Rove has emerged as Target A of the coalition of Democratic lawmakers, liberal pundits, and left-wing activists who have decided that Plamegate is their best shot--for now, at least-at the Bush administration. And they've been taking that shot, over and over and over. Harry Reid, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Kerry, Paul Krugman, MoveOn.org--they're all in the fight.

At times, the rhetoric has become slightly surreal. "The bottom line is, there's a traitor in the White House who betrayed America and the war on terror right under George Bush's nose," former Al Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said on CNN recently. He was referring to Rove. Executives at the liberal radio network Air America liked the phrase "traitor in the White House" so much that they created an anti-Rove fundraising campaign around it. And one of the network's hosts recently asked New Jersey Democratic senator Frank Lautenberg, "Karl Rove is guilty of treason, isn't he?" Lautenberg said, "Yes, I think so."

The Republican National Committee has fought back, not only defending Rove--there is no evidence that anybody knows of to suggest he broke the law--but also pointing out that some of the things that Wilson has said in the past did not turn out to be, uh, true. For example, they pointed to something Wilson wrote in his book, The Politics of Truth, about the way he was chosen for the Niger factfinding mission that is at the center of the scandal. "Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter," he wrote. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." But Republicans cited the Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan report, which detailed how Wilson's wife "suggested his name for the trip" and also wrote a memo highlighting his qualifications for the mission. "This is not somebody who has got a good record of being the source of accurate information," said RNC chairman Ken Mehlman.

Then there was the question of whether Wilson was motivated, at least in part, by partisanship. On July 14, Wilson appeared in the Mansfield Room in the Capitol for a joint news conference with New York Democratic senator Charles Schumer, a man not known for his embrace of nonpartisanship. But even in such a setting, Wilson seemed offended at the very idea that anyone might attribute a political motive to his actions.

"This is not a partisan issue," Wilson told reporters as Schumer looked on, "and for the RNC to try and turn this into a partisan fight, I think, is unfortunate." Wilson also thanked Schumer for treating Plamegate "as a matter of principle, not as a matter of partisanship." Schumer, too, agreed that Wilson was not acting out of partisanship.

Despite those assurances--and who wouldn't believe Schumer on such a matter?--Wilson gave his critics even more ammunition when he agreed to appear at "Rovegate/DSM" house parties organized by the Bush-bashing Michigan Democratic representative John Conyers. ("DSM" refers to the Downing Street Memo, which has become a sacred text to Conyers and his anti-war allies.) Scheduled to appear along with Wilson was Randi Rhodes, the Air America personality who has used her program to express her wish that George W. Bush be killed.