Why Novak Called Rove(2 Women Targets of WH Leaks) ...Murray Waas

Why Novak Called Rove
By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Dec. 16, 2005

On July 9, 2003, senior presidential adviser Karl Rove was well prepared as he returned a telephone call from columnist Robert Novak. On his desk were talking points and other briefing materials that then-White House Political Director Matt Schlapp and other staffers had compiled for Rove in anticipation of the conversation.

For a White House that took great pride in its disciplined approach to managing the flow of information to the public, such thorough staff preparation -- even for a single conversation with a newspaper columnist -- was not out of the ordinary, former and current administration officials said in interviews.

But despite the meticulous preparation for what should have been a routine phone call, something went awry. As a result of what both Rove and Novak have insisted were only brief comments at the very end of the conversation, Novak wrote a column disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA officer; a special prosecutor was named to investigate the leak; a New York Times reporter was jailed for 85 days; and the then-chief of staff to Vice President Cheney was indicted on criminal charges for concealing his own role in the leak. Rove himself anxiously awaits word on whether he will also be charged by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Ironically, the materials prepared for Rove in advance of the conversation had nothing to do with Valerie Plame, the CIA officer whom Novak would identify -- using Rove as one of his sources -- as an "agency operative" in a July 14, 2003, column.

Instead, the voluminous material on Rove's desk -- including talking points, related briefing materials, and information culled from confidential government personnel files -- involved a different woman: Frances Fragos Townsend, a former senior attorney in the Clinton administration's Justice Department whom President Bush had recently named to be his deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism.

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1216nj2.htm

That's a pretty detailed acct. I'd guess Novak, with recent acceleration of remarks btwn he and the WH, but this looks like a view from the WH side of the call.

Waas has a pretty good rep, doesn't he?

He has been unfailing accurate.

to Dim-son and father Dim-son to a fault.

For Levine's answer to be vague, but the proceeding info to be so specific, I'd say Waas *also* got Novak.


"Just before his July 9 conversation with Rove, Novak had been relentlessly calling around the White House asking questions about Townsend. Adam Levine, then an assistant White House press secretary and a Rove protege, told Rove that Novak had called, and that Novak was upset that Rove had not called him back. Levine would say later that he was uncertain whether Novak had stated the purpose of the call."

so I googled "Karen Hughes friction with..." and found this old but interesting piece. I remembered that there had been rumors about a power struggle between Hughes and either Card or Rove, especially when she "went back to Texas to spend more time with her family".

Put together with the stories that * is only talking to the womenfolks -could it be that Karen's in the catbird seat now?

edited for misspelling.

maybe a warning...