What, Me Leak?

Is it over?

Can the Rove matter be put aside now to make room for REAL issues that deserve to take center stage?

In spite of their valiant efforts, it seems Bush-haters can't string this one out too much longer.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential confidant Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he learned the identity of a CIA operative originally from journalists, then informally discussed the information with a Time magazine reporter days before the story broke, according to a person briefed on the testimony.

The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.

I love it when stories about "the leak" incorporate newly leaked information.

Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story. The conversation eventually turned to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration's Iraq war policy and the intelligence it used to justify the war, the source said.

The person said Rove testified that Novak told him he had learned and planned to report in a weekend column that Wilson's wife, Plame, had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims of alleged nuclear material sales to Iraq.

...Rove told the grand jury that by the time Novak had called him, he believes he had similar information about Wilson's wife from another reporter but had no recollection of which reporter had told him about it first, the source said.

When Novak inquired about Wilson's wife working for the CIA, Rove indicated he had heard something like that, according to the source's recounting of the grand jury testimony.

Rove told the grand jury that four days later, he had a phone conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and — in an effort to discredit some of Wilson's allegations — told Cooper that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, though he never used her name.

An e-mail Cooper recently provided the grand jury shows Cooper reported to his magazine bosses that Rove had described Wilson's wife in a confidential conversation as someone who "apparently works" at the CIA.

Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, said Thursday his client truthfully testified to the grand jury and expected to be exonerated.

"Karl provided all pertinent information to prosecutors a long time ago," Luskin said. "And prosecutors confirmed when he testified most recently in October 2004 that he is not a target of the investigation."

Did you hear that Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid and John "Fire Rove Now" Kerry?

KARL ROVE IS NOT A TARGET OF THE INVESTIGATION.

In an interview on CNN Thursday before the latest revelation, Wilson kept up his criticism of the White House, saying Rove's conduct was an "outrageous abuse of power ... certainly worthy of frog-marching out of the White House."

But at the same time, Wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak's column first identified her. "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity," he said.

Joe Wilson is nuts.

He's complaining about an "outrageous abuse of power." What exactly is he talking about?

How was power abused when Wilson himself acknowledges that Plame wasn't a covert operative when Bob Novak outed her?

Moreover, how can one out someone who's not undercover?

It's ridiculous.

...Pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that Rove wasn't involved in the leak, the White House refused to do so this week.

I guess this depends on what the meaning of "involved" is.

Rove didn't spring the leak. He heard it from journalists, not government sources. Later, he casually confirmed that he was aware Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Does that qualify as being involved?

It's time for the Dems and the MSM to let this one go. With each highly-publicized press conference and each breathless press release from the Left, the Karl Rove non-scandal scandal becomes more of a joke.

The joke is on the Dems.

Time to say, "Nevermind. There's nothing to see here. Keep moving..."