Plame, Rove, and the Law

18 July 2005

I am not writing to pile on in the criticism, but to let you know that I am mildly disappointed in the way you handled the question about the Plame investigation on Face the Nationthis past Sunday. I agree that some of the Democrats may be using it politically as are some of your republican colleagues. I think that you were just attempting to call it like it is and the wrong words came out. It does seem like politics on both sides, however, I think that you could have said that you weren’t going to comment because there was an on going investigation. Your comment just fanned the flames. You are the first one I am actually commenting to about this issue at all because I wanted to wait and see what Patrick Fitzgerald learned from his investigation.

I also agree with you that Mr. Rove may have been cleared by the testimony of Matt Cooperregarding the leak. This case is so complex and it does deal with national security. It does need to be dealt with. However, we cannot effectively deal with it as a people or a government until we know exactly what happened. We will only know what happened if Mr. Fitzgerald can complete his job in relative peace. I wish the political circus, on both sides, surrounding this issue would leave town because it is making all of us look bad.

I understand the pressure you must be under because of this. I am frankly tired of it because I cannot turn on a national talk show without hearing it rehashed to the current point even when there is no new information.

There are other issues that relate to our security, like Reauthorization of the U.S.A. Patriot Act ([HR 2360] & [HR 3057]), that are far more able to be discussed and are necessary because they impact us more immediately. We do not know how the investigation will develop or finalize, so I think that we need to discuss issues that we actually can fully debate because we have all the information or “can obtain” it.

I still respect you. I also trust with this nation’s security. I believe you made a mistake and I forgive you.