My one Karl Rove/Valerie Plame comment

I've been following the Rove/Libby/Plame issue closely, but haven't had much to say. Except that the Democrats and the press should be targeting both Rove and Libby to get them to issue waivers of confidentiality specifically to Judith Miller so she can leave jail and start testifying about her conversations. Given that both men claim to have waived the confidentiality privilege willingly, there's no objective reason why they can't get specific.

The likely real reason is that they want to claim they've done nothing wrong, claim they're not holding anyone back from testifying, but at the same time, hold Miller back from testifying. These two men and President Bush should pay a political price for being deceptive, or they should get specific.

The faux-Democrat Mickey Kaus says that if Bush forces a specific waiver out of Libby, it will be seen as coerced by Miller and therefore unacceptable. The pressure doesn't have to be on Bush, though, reporters and Democrats can be shoving waiver notices directly under the noses of Libby and Rove. Bush should meanwhile be doing his own investigation for his own reasons, not just to help Miller decide whether to testify to the grand jury.

The choice for the Republicans should be to either come clean, or pay for it at the polls.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long:

WHERE'S THE WAIVER? The DCCC's Jesse Lee has the text of a new letter sent by representatives John Conyers, Louise Slaughter, and Rush Holt to I. Lewis Libby. Citing Murray Waas' Prospect report of a meeting between Libby and Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, the Democrats call on Libby to cooperate fully with the Plame investigators by granting Miller a personal waiver to talk about their discussions.

Good for them, they need to keep this up. And time to get reporters to push for the same thing about Libby and Rove.

key: politics