One of the several enduring questions of the Plame scandal is why, exactly, Bush has never bothered to ask any of his top aides, including Karl Rove, what happened with the Plame leak. The president has claimed to have an interest in who did the leaking — indeed, Scott McClellan has said no one wants to get to the bottom of this more than Bush does — and yet, he won’t ask simple questions of those he speaks with multiple times a day.
Up until now, many of us have assumed the president’s interest is in plausible deniability. Bush has sworn to fire anyone involved with the leak, so as long as he doesn’t know anything, he doesn’t have to do anything. Yesterday, however, we got an expanded excuse — Bush hasn’t asked questions of his staff because he can’t.
[W]hile indicating that all he knows is what he has read in newspapers, Bush gave Rove a ringing endorsement.
“Karl’s got my complete confidence. He’s a valuable member of my team,” Bush said, adding that internal fact-finding has been hampered by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s request that the White House not discuss the inquiry.
Asked if he feels he knows the facts about what his staff’s involvement might be in any leaks, Bush said, “We have been cautioned about talking about this issue.”
Asked if that caution covered internal White House discussions, Bush said, “Yes.”
As far as I know, this is the first time Bush has ever made this claim. And when you think about it, it’s a doozy — the president suggested to reporters that he wants to know the facts, but, as the Washington Times put it, Patrick Fitzgerald’s “gag order has hampered internal White House fact-finding.”
This is probably the most painfully absurd claim Bush has made about this scandal yet.
There is no “gag order” and the president doesn’t need to rely on newspapers for information. If Bush called Rove into the Oval Office and demanded answers, there’s nothing to stop them from having the conversation. When Bush told reporters yesterday, “We have been cautioned about talking about this issue,” this passively sidestepped who, exactly, did the cautioning and to whom the president is not supposed to speak.
In Civics 101 terms, the president is chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. Even if Fitzgerald, for some inexplicable reason, asked the president not to talk to Rove or Libby about this controversy, Bush could still ask anyone anything he wanted. Instead, he’s chosen not to.
The Washington Times mentioned “internal White House fact-finding.” As far as anyone can tell, there hasn’t been any “internal White House fact-finding.” That’s the problem. If the Bush gang is looking for an excuse to explain why that is, they’ll need to look elsewhere. Blaming Fitzgerald doesn’t make any sense.
Bush said yesterday, in response to a question about Rove’s role in the scandal, “Why don’t you wait and see what the true facts are?” My only response is this: why don’t you, Mr. President, find out what the true facts are, and we won’t have to wait anymore.