Gergen peddled misinformation on Plame case, again and again

[steve2470]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200507140003

Former presidential adviser and political pundit David Gergen repeatedly pushed the false Republican spin that unless White House senior adviser Karl Rove revealed CIA operative Valerie Plame's actual name, he did not commit a crime.

In fact, the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, under which the intentional disclosure of a covert agent's identity is illegal, applies to any individual who "intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information." Even Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, has acknowledged that leaking Plame's actual name, as opposed to information that otherwise identified her, is not central to whether Rove revealed classified information.

Appearing on the July 13 edition of MSNBC'S Hardball with Chris Matthews, Gergen stated that "as long as he didn't put the name out," Rove did not have a legal problem:

ANDREA MITCHELL (NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent): And -- and, in fact, I have always have thought that Bob Novak's column back then said that there were two administration officials. I have always thought that Karl Rove is the only one we know about, but that there was someone else, clearly, inside the administration, inside the White House, perhaps, who was feeding this information. And this could have been in fact a higher-up or someone else that has not been identified.

<snip>

[autorank]

1. Well, does this tell you who his latest "client" is. I also saw that.

I think he's some sort of fool, like the main character in "Being There." He was so off in that interview, it was annoying.

So, whose payroll is he on?

[TheDebbieDee]

3. David Gergan floats around both the Democratic and

repuke camps. He truly is an independent who has served both Democratic admins and admins from hell.

He calls himself a Democrat.

[Jane Austin]

4. I always thought he called himself a Republican.

No?

[autorank]

8. That's why I thought this was odd. There was almost a tone of urgency and

a little petulance in his tone. The guy had marching orders. He's a Mandarin but a very good one; this was out of character.

[Montauk6]

2. How FAR do they want to take this???

Was Rove supposed to utter her full legal name (including middle) as printed on her Social Security card too?

[Carolab]

5. If you want to know how far they'll take it watch Coleman on C-Span.

Along with Kit Bond, they were splitting some very fine hairs on "the law" and what specifically had to be "true" for Rove to have committed a crime.

[lumpy]

6. Gurgle is a political parasite;

all knowing pontifical bullslinger. Like Novak he has made a pretentious career pretending to be Soloman wise. Frauds

[Melodybe]

7. No love for the man here, if he helps bring them down then more power to

him, but otherwise I think he sucks.

[Terran]

9. I thought David Gergen was smarter than that.

I guess when it comes down to it, he'll protect the Party's men just like the rest of them. Really really pathetic.