Let Karl Rove go

Right off the bat, let me state in my best armchair-lawyer fashion that based on the evidence, Karl Rove broke no laws in telling Matthew Cooper that Joseph Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA. Two things need to be true (and provable) for Rove to be guilty under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act: first, Plame had to be a covert agent and second, Karl Rove needed to knowingly reveal this information. The latter point appears unanswerable; on the first there has been much confusion and, official designation aside, it seemed to be the worst kept secret in Washington:

When Matt Cooper went on deep background with Karl Rove, before all of this came out, he asked Rove about Wilson's credibility. Rove warned Cooper not to trust Wilson. The White House knew Wilson lied about both the report and the nature of his assignment, and gave Cooper the information to back that up. Plame's status as CIA agent hardly qualified as a secret; NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell concedes that most of Washington's media elite already knew it. Novak simply printed it, although no one knows who gave it to Novak. At any rate, on the evidence given so far, Rove never broke the law as even the Times article makes clear in its final paragraphs.

The problem for the White House, then, is the political fallout of a top advisor to the President misleading the American people. And while Joe Wilson and his wife are both partisan, media-hungry, liars and the blowdry brigade in the mainstream media is sniffing for blood, and it would set off raucous celebration among the MoveOn rabble, the White House should allow Karl Rove to resign.

Two reasons:
1.) Karl Rove was hired to get President Bush elected and re-elected. He succeeded. Take a vacation.
2.) If he remains, Rove will be a diversion at a critical moment in President Bush’s second term between legislative battles, Supreme Court nominations and the War on Terror. On this last point, here’s the eloquent Dr. Shackleford:

I dunno about the rest of the world, but I for one did not vote for Karl Rove. I voted for George W. Bush. And I didn't vote for him because I was worried about indexing the alternative-minimum-tax to the inflation rate. I voted for Bush because I want a President who will respond to threats against the United States with force and without hesitation. Rove will only prove to be a distraction to the [expletive] on the Left looking for any excuse to appease our enemies. So, Mr. Bush, fire Karl Rove and then do what we elected you to do: Kick. Some. Terrorist. Ass.

I think Rove can frame his exit in the sense that he doesn’t want to be a distraction for the President and the ongoing investigation. Freed from the constraints of the White House, Rove can meet with the press and explain why he felt it was his duty to discredit Joe Wilson who dissembled on his wife’s role in his Niger trip and the details of his report. After the dust settles, and there’s no frog-marching, Rove can go on the lecture circuit or join the lobbying corps and earn ten-times what he’s making as a White House advisor.

Let’s throw Karl Rove into that briar patch.