When A Phone Call Isn't A Phone Call

Bart Simpson delights in saying, "I didn't do it. No one saw me do it. You can't prove anything!" And so goes the "defense" of Karl Rove, as the last two "witnesses" offer testimony to the grand jury investigating the leaking of a covert CIA agent's identity.

According to the NYT, two former Rove aides have testified to the grand jury...

At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper's call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove's office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard.

And that's how a phone call ceases to be a phone call in the land of Oh, Right, Sure. It's only a phone call if it's logged? Betcha Bill Clinton wouldn't have skated based on that defense. Oops, he didn't skate at all, did he? An affair is worse than treason, after all.

Here's what actually happened...

In an article in Time last month about his grand jury appearance, Mr. Cooper wrote that he had telephoned the White House and been transferred to Mr. Rove's office.

"I believe a woman answered the phone and said words to the effect that Rove wasn't there," Mr. Cooper wrote, "or was busy before going on vacation. But then I recall she said something like 'hang on,' and I was transferred to him."

Mr. Cooper wrote that Mr. Rove told him that Ms. Wilson had worked at the C.I.A. and had been responsible for sending her husband to Africa.

So...

There really was a phone call.

Actually, there were many phone calls.

(Cue that law & Order pizzicato!)

A simple phone call should result in a simple subpoena for the simple truth on all White House phone records during any given time period.

I hope Rove's Bart Simpson defense, obviously designed to circumvent the truth, gets the grand jury result it deserves: indictments.

Heavy, heavy sigh.

File this under: Rove's Mooning You, America!