Nor, says Luskin, was Rove trying to "out" a covert CIA agent or "smear" her husband. "What Karl was trying to do, in a very short conversation initiated by Cooper on another subject, was to warn Time away from publishing things that were going to be established as false." Luskin points out that on the evening of July 11, 2003, just hours after the Rove-Cooper conversation, then-CIA Director George Tenet released a statement that undermined some of Wilson's public assertions about his report. "Karl knew that that [Tenet] statement was in gestation," says Luskin. "I think a fair reading of the e-mail was that he was trying to warn Cooper off from going out on a limb on [Wilson's] allegations."
Why don't we know Pincus's source yet? He says,
My position was that until my source came forward publicly or to the prosecutor, I would not discuss the matter. It turned out that my source, whom I still cannot identify publicly, had in fact disclosed to the prosecutor that he was my source, and he talked to the prosecutor about our conversation. (In writing this story, I am using the masculine pronoun simply for convenience). My attorney discussed the matter with his attorney, and we confirmed that he had no problem with my testifying about our conversation.
When my deposition finally took place in my lawyer’s office last September, Fitzgerald asked me about the substance of my conversation about Wilson’s wife, the gist of which I had reported in the newspaper. But he did not ask me to confirm my source’s identity, which was my condition for being deposed. My original understanding with my source still holds—to withhold his identity until he makes it public, if ever. (my emphasis.)
When Pincus wrote that last week, Karl Rove still hadn't gone public with being one of the leakers. So who is Pincus's source, if not Karl Rove? I suspect it is Karl Rove because the call occurred on July 12, 2003, two days before Novak's column appeared. Special Counsel Fitzgerald subpoenaed Air Force One records for July 7, to July 12, because Bush was flying to Nigeria. Was Karl Rove was on the plane? Knights-Ridder reported on March 6, 2004 (See Akron Beacon Journal for example)
The document requests indicate the investigation is focused on high-level White House aides because only they would have access to the secure phone lines on Air Force One.
The White House refused in March, 2004 to release the names of those on the trip. (Newsday, March 5, 2004.)
On September 16, 2004, in an article written by a different journalist, Wapo reports:
Pincus answered questions about Libby as well. Both he and Cooper said they did so with Libby's approval, and both said that their conversations with Libby did not touch on the identity of Wilson's wife.
So Pincus, like Cooper, had two sources. Like Cooper, one was Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis Libby. It sure seems like the other had to be Karl Rove. And if it was, then how spontaneous could Rove's disclosure to Cooper have been? And how many other reporters did he tell?
Update: Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly makes a similar point.
This wasn't just a single offhand comment at the end of a phone call with Matt Cooper about welfare reform. It was Karl Rove and someone else systematically making sure they mentioned Plame to every reporter they talked to.