Tubby McTreason and his lies.

From Thinkprogress:

During his tour of the Sunday shows this morning, Karl Rove attempted to downplay and dismiss his role in the CIA leak scandal, telling Fox News’ Chris Wallace that he acted benignly in his conversations with reporters about Valerie Plame’s identity:

What I did say to one reporter was, I’ve heard that, too. And what I said to another reporter, off the record, was, in essence, I don’t think you ought to be writing about this.

Appearing on Meet The Press today, Matthew Cooper, one of the reporters to whom Rove spoke about Plame, said Rove’s version of the story was hard to believe. “I think he was dissembling to put it charitably,” said Cooper. “To imply that he didn’t know about [Plame’s identity], or that he heard it in some rumor out in the hallways, is nonsense.”

Cooper also contradicted Rove’s characterization of their conversation, describing the “essence” of it as much more than just an attempt to wave him off the story:

Look, Karl Rove told me about Valerie Plame’s identity on July 11, 2003. I called him because Ambassador Wilson [Plame’s husband] was in the news that week. I didn’t know Ambassador Wilson even had a wife until I talked to Karl Rove and he said that she worked at the agency and she worked on WMD.

Let's look at the testimonies of Cooper and Novak in the Libby trial in connection to Rove:

Summation of Libby Trial for January 31, 2007:

On the defense side, Jeffress drilled Cooper about Rove. Cooper said Rove told him that Wilson's wife, rather than Cheney, was responsible for sending Wilson to Niger in 2002. Here is Cooper's testimony with Fitzgerald:

Cooper: Libby responded, "Yeah, I've heard that too," or "Yeah, I've heard something like that, too."
Fitzgerald: Did Libby said where he heard that?
Cooper: Not in any way.
Fitzgerald: Did he say he heard it from other reporters?
Cooper: No.


Summation of Libby Trial for February 12, 2007:

Then, comes this interesting piece of information from Novak's testimony. Novak said he had quickly shared the column (pre-publication) with a lobbyist friend named Rick Hohlt. Novak thinks Hohlt told him later that he had mentioned to a White House contact at that time that a very interesting article would be appearing very soon. Here is his testimony to Wells and Fitzgerald:

Wells: Rick Hohlt. Who is Rick Hohlt.
RN: A lobbyist and a close friend. I talk to him every day.
Wells: did you have conversations with him about it. Did you give him a draft of the article?
RN: Yes.
Wells: Mr. Holt had the article in his hand by 4:00 that day. And Holt is a lobbyist about town. Would you describe him as a gossip?
RN: He talks to a lot of people, even me, he's a good news source.


Fitz: Did he ever tell you he had shared it?
RN: Vague recollection that he had told the WH that there was an interesting piece coming out.
RN: In those conversations I had with him on Friday.
Fitz: Your belief is that he told the WH on Friday that an interesting piece coming out.?
RN: Yes

And here comes to the bombshell in connection to Rove:

Michael Isikoff reports for Newsweek. "What Novak didn't tell the jury is what the lobbyist then did with it: Hohlt confirmed to NEWSWEEK that he faxed the forthcoming column[concerning Plame] to their mutual friend Karl Rove (one of Novak's sources for the Plame leak), thereby giving the White House a heads up on the bombshell to come."

After Novak first told Hohlt that he was working on a hot story about ex-ambassador Joe Wilson, Hohlt says he e-mailed Rove to expect a phone call from Novak. Then Hohlt began pressing Novak to learn the juicy details. On July 11, 2003, three days before the column was published, Novak gave him a preview copy. (Unknown to Hohlt, Rove had already confirmed to Novak that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.) That same day, Hohlt e-mailed details about the column to Rove, and later faxed him the entire unpublished article. (Rove's lawyer confirms this account.) "I was just trying to be helpful," Hohlt says. His role as a go-between later earned him a visit from the FBI, but it stayed secret until now. And that was just fine with Hohlt, who says that his greatest accomplishment as a lobbyist has been "staying out of the press."

More on the story.

On a side note: From Emptywheel and good point!:

Not surprising, when David Gregory had Karl Rove on Meet the Press this morning, he never called Rove on any of Rove’s misrepresentations. That’s par for the course, on NBC. When Russert had Bob Novak on, he didn’t call him on any of the misrepresentations, either. (Though to NBC’s credit, they had Matt Cooper on to smack Karl around after Karl was gone.) Of course, both Russert (as Libby’s fictional source for Plame’s identity) and Gregory (as one of the people whom Ari Fleischer leaked Plame’s identity to) are key players in this story. They’re not exactly reporting from a position of comfort or clarity.

MTP should have had another person to host Rove who was not connected to the leak case.