[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15628-15629]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               KARL ROVE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, it is time President Bush's Deputy White 
House Chief of Staff Karl Rove level with the American people and 
explain exactly what his role was in the leak of a covert CIA agent.
  Mr. Speaker, this is serious business. But from the way the White 
House has been handling it, you would think it is no big deal. Valerie 
Plame was a covert CIA agent stationed in many hot spots around the 
world. When someone in the White House decided to leak her name to 
reporters they were jeopardizing any undercover operations that Plame 
had worked with in the past.
  You would think that President Bush would take this issue very 
seriously, since it was his father who said in a presidential address 
at the CIA headquarters back in 1999, and I am going to quote that, 
``that I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the 
trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view the 
most insidious of traitors.''
  Now those are some tough words from the first President Bush who knew 
the CIA well from his days as director of that agency. But when Valerie 
Plame's name was first leaked, this president, the current President 
Bush, also had some tough comments for whoever was responsible. In 
September 2003 he said in response to a question regarding the leak of 
Plame's name, and again I am quoting, ``if there is a leak out of my 
administration, I want to know who it is, and if the person has 
violated the law, the person will be taken care of.''
  Well now, Mr. Speaker, it appears that we know who one of those 
people is. And now the question is, will President Bush hold Karl Rove 
accountable for his actions?
  Karl Rove has also repeatedly denied any involvement. When he was 
first asked if he had any knowledge or involvement in the 
identification of the CIA agent, Rove simply said no. Then earlier this 
month, when interviewed by CNN, Rove amended that statement slightly 
and said, and again I am quoting, ``I will repeat what I said to ABC 
News when this whole thing broke some number of months ago. I do not 
know her name and I did not leak her name.''
  Well, we now know that he may not have necessarily given the reporter 
Valerie Plame's name. But he certainly told the reporter that Joseph 
Wilson's wife was a covert CIA agent.
  Now how difficult would it be for a reporter to find out the name of 
Wilson's wife? Not that difficult, obviously.
  Mr. Speaker, it is troubling that neither Karl Rove nor the Bush 
administration have leveled with the American people about Rove's real 
involvement. Shortly after the leak became news, White House Press 
Secretary Scott McClellan went before White House reporters and told 
the world he talked with Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams and Lewis Libby, and 
that each of three had assured him that they were not involved.
  And so now the question is, was Karl Rove withholding information 
from his colleagues at the White House about his involvement in the 
Valerie Plame scandal? Or did the White House know, and did they send 
out erroneous and false statements to the media?
  It would be nice if the White House would answer these questions, but 
now the White House refuses to comment on any issue regarding the 
ongoing investigation. Yesterday reporters tried to ask Scott McClellan 
whether or not he would stand by the statement he made back in 2003 in 
which he stated that Karl Rove had told him he was not involved. And 
McClellan said he could no longer comment on the investigation. How 
convenient, Mr. Speaker, that McClellan was able to vouch for Rove back 
in 2003 but is silent today.
  So today we are left are two possibilities really. 1, the White House 
has been bending the truth on this very serious issue since the 
beginning, or 2, Karl Rove has misrepresented his involvement to the 
White House. Either way, Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do. And I 
believe, Mr. Speaker, that President Bush should stand behind his past 
statement and ask Karl Rove to either defend his actions or resign.

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