Bush Won't Comment on Rove's Role in CIA Leak

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (July 13) - President Bush said Wednesday he will withhold judgment about top aide Karl Rove's involvement in leaking the identity of a CIA operative until a federal criminal investigation is complete. The lack of an endorsement surprised some Bush advisers who expected the president to speak up.

''This is a serious investigation,'' Bush said at the end of a meeting with his Cabinet, with Rove sitting just behind him. ''I will be more than happy to comment on this matter once this investigation is complete.

''I also will not prejudge the investigation based on media reports,'' he said, when asked whether Rove acted improperly in discussing CIA officer Valerie Plame with a reporter.

Talk about all the ducks quacking the same tune. On Monday, we had Scott McClellan give the standard White House double-speak of not commenting on the Rove leak until the investigation is complete, and now Bush is quacking the same tune. I sort of wonder if Karl Rove thought up this quack of a comment?

Bush will never fire Karl Rove--he can't. Karl Rove is the only brains left in the Bush administration and he's been in the center of just about every scandal and rumors of corruption that has come out of the White House for the last five years. The moment he falls, the Bush presidency falls. The only thing that Bush can do now is to stall for time, or pray for a crisis outside of the White House to emerge which will divert the press away from Karl Rove. The problem is that the longer the Bush White House stalls, the more the press and the American public will believe that Bush and Rove are hiding something. This could cause the press to dig deeper into the scandal, and the American public to cast their opinion in the voting booths--possibly switching control of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats. Bush and the Republicans especially need Rove to implement a mid-term election strategy for the Republicans to maintain control of Congress. If the Democrats do gain control of Congress, you can bet they'll start a number of congressional investigations into the many scandals in White House--Valerie Plame, Iraq War, WMD intelligence briefings, Halliburton contracts, Cheney's energy policy meetings. There's a lot to choose from.