The Note: Somewhere, Rollie Evans Is Smiling

— -- WASHINGTON, July 15

NEWS SUMMARY
Raise your hand if you are surprised that Bob Novak talked to Karl Rove about Valerie Plame before he wrote his original column.

(Note that neither 41 nor 42 are raising their hands.)

That shocking revelation behind us, ask yourself:

1. Who was the source for the New York Times and AP stories breaking the Novak/Rove news? (Seems pretty obvious to us, but we are too polite to say it aloud….)

2. What was the source's motivation for revealing the information now?

3. What would Ken Mehlman do without the "angry left"?

4. Who was the target audience for yesterday's Bush-Rove walk-and-talk photo op?

5. Did it work?

6. Will the Republican National Committee circulate today's breathtakingly fair Washington Post editorial on Joe Wilson's flawed record and the White House's past statements about Rove's potential involvement? (Or perhaps they will circulate only the parts of it they don't want us to miss?) LINK

7. Does the reporter who allegedly first told Karl Rove about Valerie Plame know who he or she is?

8. How does Karl Rove feel these days about Harry Reid's level of partisanship, as compared to how he felt about Tom Daschle's?

9. How much of today's blockbuster-if-it-weren't-in-a-tabloid New York Daily News must read story is accurate? LINK (Note the DeFrank gold standard co-byline….)

10. Who wrote (and edited) the latest very awesome Republican talking points defending Rove that address the Novak situation and much more?

So, when might the White House have an opportunity to address the latest news on Karl Rove's conversation with Novak?

The White House schedule doesn't include a gaggle or briefing, but it didn't yesterday either and McClellan gaggled on the plane. . . so stay tuned.

As for the President, he meets with President Antonio Saca of El Salvador in the Oval Office. No opportunity for sound there at this point, since it is stills only at the top.

President Bush will walk (alone?) to Marine One on the South Lawn at about 10:50 am ET en route to North Carolina.

At 12:30 pm ET he participates in a tour of R.L. Stowe Mills – Helms Plant in Belmont, NC. Pool coverage only here.

The big event will be his remarks on CAFTA at 1:15 pm ET in Dallas, NC. He gets back to the White House at about 4:00 pm ET today.

Elsewhere today, at 9:30 am ET, the Senate Government Information and International Security Subcommittee holds a hearing on the U.S. relationship with the World Trade Organization.

At 1:00 pm ET, DNC Chairman Howard Dean attends a grassroots fundraiser for the Idaho Democratic Party in Boise. Dean keeps busy tomorrow as well with a lunchtime lecture at Salt Lake City's Westminster College and a dinner banquet in Montana.

And remember, the DNC Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling meets tomorrow at 9:45 am ET in Washington, DC.

Sens. Kennedy, Warner, Akaka, Sessions, and Graham depart today for Guantanamo Bay.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) begins a series of appearances in South Carolina today. His tour of the state will include a fundraiser for the state GOP, a meeting with Charleston pastors, and a radio interview, the AP reports.

The National Governors Association annual summer meeting kicks off today in Des Moines, IA. You can check out the agenda here: LINK

Tomorrow, the National Council of La Raza kicks off its annual conference in Philadelphia.

Please be sure to check out the rest of the day's events in our expanded schedule section below.

Rove:
The New York Times' Johnston and Stevenson and the AP's Solomon dominate the political news cycle today. LINK and LINK

Here are your key graphs from the NY Times account:

"After hearing Mr. Novak's account, the person who has been briefed on the matter said, Mr. Rove told the columnist: 'I heard that, too.'"

More: "The person who provided the information about Mr. Rove's conversation with Mr. Novak declined to be identified, citing requests by Mr. Fitzgerald that no one discuss the case. The person discussed the matter in the belief that Mr. Rove was truthful in saying he did not disclose Ms. Wilson's identity."

"On Oct. 1, 2003, Mr. Novak wrote another column in which he described calling two officials. The first source, who is unknown, was described by Mr. Novak as 'no partisan gunslinger' who provided the outlines of the story. The second, confirming source, Mr. Novak wrote, responded, 'Oh, you know about it.'"

"That second source was Mr. Rove, the person briefed on the matter said, although Mr. Rove's account to investigators about what he told Mr. Novak was slightly different. Mr. Rove recalled telling Mr. Novak: 'I heard that, too.'"

"Asked by investigators how he knew enough to leave Mr. Novak with the impression that his information was accurate, Mr. Rove said he heard portions of the story from other journalists, but had not heard Ms. Wilson's name."

But don't overlook the Daily News story: LINK

"Along with Bush political guru Karl Rove, the grand jury is investigating what role, if any, ex-White House mouthpiece Ari Fleischer may have played in the revelation that the former covert operative Plame was married to former Ambassador Joe Wilson."

"'Ari's name keeps popping up,' said one source familiar with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe."

"Another source close to the probe added there is renewed interest in Fleischer, 'based on Fitzgerald's questions.'"

"A State Department memo that included background on Wilson - and who in the White House had access to it - appears to be a key to revealing who gave conservative columnist Robert Novak Plame's name, both sources said."

"Another person of interest in the case is Vice President Cheney's chief of staff Lewis (Scooter) Libby, who was described as 'totally obsessed with Wilson,' the sources said."

The Washington Post's editorial board urges caution and questions Wilson's credibility, but is also troubled by past White House statements. LINK

"A federal prosecutor is conducting a criminal probe that has, among other things, unearthed an e-mail from Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper revealing that Mr. Rove told him about Ms. Plame's role in her husband's trip."

"This gives the lie to White House denials that Mr. Rove was involved in the leak. Mr. Rove and White House spokesman Scott McClellan can fairly be accused, at the very least, of responding to questions about the affair with the sort of misleading legalisms and evasions that Republicans once rightly condemned President Bill Clinton for employing."

"At the same time, Mr. Rove and other administration officials had a legitimate interest in rebutting Mr. Wilson's inflated claims -- including the notion that he had been dispatched to Niger at Mr. Cheney's behest. It's in that context, judging from Mr. Cooper's e-mail, that Mr. Rove appears to have brought up Ms. Plame's role. Whether Mr. Rove or others behaved in a way that amounted to criminal, malicious or even merely sleazy behavior will turn on what they knew about Ms. Plame's employment. Were they aware she was a covert agent? Did they recklessly fail to consider that before revealing her involvement? How they learned about Ms. Plame also will matter: Did the information come from government sources or outside parties?"

"It may be that Mr. Rove, or someone else, will turn out to be guilty of deliberately leaking Ms. Plame's identity, knowing that it would blow her cover. Or officials may have conspired to cover up a leak or lied about it under oath. For now, however, it remains to be established that such misconduct occurred."

The Washington Post's Mike Allen reports that "Sources who have reviewed some of the testimony before the grand jury say there is significant evidence that reporters were in some cases alerting officials about Plame's identity and relationship to Wilson -- not the other way around." LINK

"I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, has also testified before the grand jury, saying he was alerted by someone in the media to Plame's identity, according to a source familiar with his account. Cooper has previously testified that he brought up the subject of Plame with Libby and that Libby responded that he had heard about her from someone else in the media, according to sources knowledgeable about Cooper's testimony."

Reports the Wall Street Journal's John McKinnon, "Some longtime Bush watchers think the outlines of serious damage are clear in the contradiction between Mr. Rove's conversation with Time reporter Matt Cooper about Ms. Plame's employment and earlier White House assurances that he wasn't involved. What is more, Mr. Bush has previously pledged to fire anyone culpable in the leak."

"In that environment, sustained media attention to the integrity and discretion of Bush aides on a national-security matter represents an unwelcome distraction at minimum. The longer the probe drags on -- the grand jury is empanelled until October -- the harder it gets for Mr. Bush to accomplish items on his agenda, with the media and Democrats focusing so much attention on Mr. Rove. Last evening in the Senate, they pressed -- unsuccessfully -- for an amendment that would remove security clearances from any federal employee who discloses classified information, including the identity of a covert CIA agent."

"In effect, Mr. Rove, who has been largely responsible for Mr. Bush's triumphs, now could become the undoing of Mr. Bush's second-term agenda, unless he can find a way to put the story to rest. 'The architect of this historic two-term presidency...may now be the only one that can get the White House out of this political free fall,' observes Scott Reed, once Bob Dole's presidential campaign manager."

The New Republic's Ryan Lizza writes an exegesis of Robert Luskin's public comments and wonders whether he is helping or hurting his client. LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Schmitt reviews the statute at the heart of Fitzgerald's investigation, and finds, as all do, that prosecutions are tough. LINK

The Post's Chuck Babington chronicles the "bitingly" partisan day in the Senate. LINK

Opines E.J. Dionne, Jr., "The issue now is whether the Karl Rove leak affair marks a tipping point in the way President Bush's administration is viewed by the public, treated by the press and regarded by Republicans in Congress." LINK

"The furious counterattacks on Rove's behalf over the past few days suggest that Bush's supporters are worried that unless this wound is cleansed quickly, the president could confront an increasingly skeptical electorate and emboldened media. Both could take a toll on the president's support within his own party."

"For most of his first term, the president rode out controversies by drawing on a substantial well of public respect and affection. But Bush's popularity ratings have been on the decline for much of the year. Public patience with the war in Iraq is waning, and support for the president's major domestic initiative on Social Security has dropped steadily. A president who in the past might have pulled his top political adviser out of trouble instead finds the controversy surrounding Rove deepening the difficulties he already had."

"And at a critical moment, the normally effective Bush spin operation finds itself handcuffed because the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame is the subject of a criminal investigation that seems close to fruition."

Krugman is apocalyptic and apoplectic. LINK

The Schwarzenegger Era:
Schwarzenegger communications director Rob Stutzman makes it clear that his boss is going to be keeping his job as editor of two bodybuilding magazines. The San Francisco Chronicle's Martin and Berthelsen have details. LINK

The New York Times' Andrew Pollack follows yesterday's Los Angeles Times on Gov. Schwarzenegger's fitness magazine contract, but puts his compensation at $5million. Note Rob Stutzman's invoking Shakespeare and Art Torres' pushing for the deal to be reviewed by the Fair Political Practices Commission in California. LINK

The Los Angeles Times has Stutzman theorizing that perhaps the consulting contract saves California taxpayers money. LINK

Social Security:
"With no consensus in sight, even among Republicans, the chairmen of the Senate and House committees with jurisdiction over Social Security have decided to postpone further consideration of the issue at least until September," writes the New York Times' Rosenbaum. LINK

"With every passing week, the prospects for major Social Security legislation, President Bush's top legislative priority, appear dimmer."

SCOTUS: the Chief:
ABC News' Manuel Medrano reports that "The Rehnquist statement conveys unequivocally to President Bush that he does not need to wait any longer to announce his nominee to replace Justice O'Connor. Clearly Bush had been waiting to see if he'd have the chance at an immediate 'two-fer' in the event of a Rehnquist retirement. Don't be surprised if Bush moves up his nominee announcement from the end of July date suggested by the White House. And forget any talk of a moderate nominee to replace the moderate, pragmatic O'Connor. Bush has no choice now but to put forward an ardent conservative."

The Washington Post's Charles Lane and Peter Baker report that "Several advisers inside and outside the White House said Bush's team had been working on the assumption that Rehnquist would not be stepping down in the near term and had largely discounted much of the media-driven speculation of recent days. 'We're always prepared if another vacancy comes up, but we've been working on the vacancy we've got,' said a senior administration official who asked not to be named because the White House has kept the nomination process confidential." LINK

"Bush continues to study his choices, the official added: 'He's still looking at names and trying to come to a decision. There's not a set timetable at this point.'"

"The prospect that the scene on his lawn, with its overtones of a ghoulish death watch, would continue all summer was evidently what drove the famously tight-lipped chief justice to issue his statement," writes the New York Times' High Court guru Linda Greenhouse. LINK

And Greenhouse includes this interesting graph about the former Stanford classmates: "Inside the court, on the other hand, the assumption had been growing, in the absence of any concrete information, that Chief Justice Rehnquist intended to remain on the job and that he had communicated this decision to Justice O'Connor before she made her retirement decision final."

"Now that Rehnquist has shown that the speculation was wrong, Bush is faced with a clearer choice -- as well as a dilemma," writes the Los Angeles Times' Savage. LINK

SCOTUS: the battle ahead:
Justice Sunday returns, reports the New York Times' Kirkpatrick. LINK

And Note this from the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins: "Asked if the administration had offered assurances that Mr. Gonzales would not be nominated, Mr. Perkins said: 'I think they may have. They certainly have encouraged us to stay focused on the process.'"

In her write-up of yesterday's Gang of 14 (well, apparently the Gang was only 12 strong yesterday) meeting, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times has a Sen. Pryor quote where he seems to do his best at ending the Democratic talking point on consultation. LINK

"'There's been a real sense that the White House has reached out more on this nomination than they've reached out on anything, really, since President Bush has been here,' Mr. Pryor said. 'We think that's positive, and we hope that's a good omen of things to come.'"

The Los Angeles Times' Maura Reynolds belatedly offers up the Gonzales/recusal story to her readers. LINK

Dean's Democrats:
Matt Bai explores the Democratic Party's reintroduction to rhetoric in his New York Times Magazine cover story on George Lakoff, "the father of framing."

"Democrats thought they knew the answer. Even before the election, a new political word had begun to take hold of the party, beginning on the West Coast and spreading like a virus all the way to the inner offices of the Capitol. That word was 'framing.' Exactly what it means to 'frame' issues seems to depend on which Democrat you are talking to, but everyone agrees that it has to do with choosing the language to define a debate and, more important, with fitting individual issues into the contexts of broader story lines. In the months after the election, Democratic consultants and elected officials came to sound like creative-writing teachers, holding forth on the importance of metaphor and narrative."

The politics of terror:
Just one week after the London terrorist attacks, the New York Times' Eric Lipton sums up the final passage of the Homeland Security appropriations bill in the Senate thusly: "In three votes, the Senate, unable to reach a consensus on how much to spend, rejected proposals to increase the Homeland Security Department's budget for mass transit and rail by amounts ranging from $100 million to $1.4 billion." LINK

Ethics:
Farewell, Duke Cunningham, farewell. LINK

"The decision by Mr. Cunningham, a conservative and former Navy pilot active on military and intelligence issues, makes him the first lawmaker to be claimed by a swirl of ethics accusations that have engulfed the House this year," writes the New York Times' Carl Hulse. LINK

Bush agenda:
Some positive test scores has the Bush Administration touting No Child Left Behind as the cause, but critics are not willing to concede that point, stating the tests were administered too soon after the law was enacted to be the reason for the progress. The New York Times has the story. LINK

Timeswoman Anne Kornblut provides a wrap of the Bush/Mehlman one-two punch aimed at bringing African Americans into the GOP fold. LINK

Good local coverage accompanied President Bush's visit. LINK and LINK

Politics of immigration:
Sen. Bill Frist said yesterday that immigration reform may be delayed until next year and his comments come as a surprise and disappointment to Senators Cornyn and McCain, who have been actively working on legislation. LINK

2008: Republicans:
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney surprisingly gets above the fold on the front page with his look at Gov. Pataki's flirting with presidential political waters as he heads to Des Moines for the National Governors Association summer meeting. LINK

"Mr. Pataki's associates said he viewed the trip. . . as a test of whether a moderate Republican from New York has a real chance of winning his party's presidential nomination," writes Nagourney.

You'll find tons of good nuggets of gubernatorial schmoozing schedules, but this is our favorite graph: "David Yepsen, an influential political columnist for The Des Moines Register, said that prospective 2008 candidates had crowded his calendar with requests for private interviews, though he declined, in responding to an e-mail question, to say which ones."

One Pataki aide clarified this morning that the Governor doesn't intend on going to a Little League game, but instead is scheduled to attend the minor league Iowa Cubs game in Des Moines later today.

Though Nagourney describes Pataki's interest as "sudden," you'll probably recall lots of political tongues wagging when he delivered the keynote speech for the Iowa State Republican Party's annual Ronald Reagan dinner in November 2003.

Gov. Romney gets an early evaluation of Iowa today as he heads over for the National Governors Association. Romney is planning on meeting with legislative leaders and political reporters, but will also be tending to his gubernatorial role by helping with fundraising and distributing PAC funding, per the Boston Globe's extensive coverage. LINK

Note the Globe's look at how much money Romney groups have distributed in key states, as compared to others.

Yesterday Gov. Romney responded to Sen. Santorum anti-Boston remarks and said he hoped the Senator would "realize it's not a Boston issue," but never demanded an apology. Democrats believe Romney's tepid remarks are politically positioned. "Romney seems intent on scoring political points with the same people that Rick Santorum appeals to, and that is the most extreme fringe of the Republican Party," said Rep. Martin T. Meehan. LINK

2008: Democrats:
The AP picks up Tom Vilsack's ascension to the head of the DLC, which was first reported by Roll Call a while ago. LINK

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton got more cash donations in the first fiscal quarter from the 50 most politically active professions than anyone else in Congress," reports the New York Post's Ian Bishop. LINK

"Those numbers are expected to rocket in her second-quarter fund-raising report, scheduled to be filed with the Senate and Federal Election Commission today."

Sen. Clinton's anti-smut Grand Theft campaign gets plenty of ink today too.

NGA:
The Des Moines Register's Lynn Campbell writes that earning a high score on the education portion of the National Governors Association conference will involve a great deal of teamwork among visiting state executives -- and Notes that the home state got a headstart on efforts to strengthen high school programs. LINK

The Des Moines Register -- the newspaper that started it all for him, at least journalistically -- is (we imagine) beaming with pride to announce that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman will give Saturday's keynote address for the NGA. LINK

2005:
Those tax payer funded Gifford Miller mailings cost a lot more than originally reported. LINK

Stefan Friedman of the New York Post reports Rev. Al Sharpton is none too pleased with Virginia Fields' handling of the photo flap. LINK

2006:
The New York Post's Fred Dicker adds up Eliot Spitzer's latest fundraising filing showing he raised $6.2 million in the first half of this year. LINK

The politics of public broadcasting:
In the Rolling Stone issue hitting newsstands today, Tim Dickinson looks at Ken Tomlinson's ties to the White House.

"A close friend of Karl Rove since they worked together overseeing Voice of America, he hired a right-wing consultant to secretly monitor Bill Moyers for signs of 'liberal bias.' He collaborated with the White House to hire two 'ombudsmen' to keep an eye on Frontline and All Things Considered. And after President Bush was re-elected in November, Tomlinson warned a gathering of PBS executives that the country had moved to the right – and that their programming should reflect that."

Politics:
The "master ruminator," Philippe Reines, bares all in his Public Lives treatment. LINK

"The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the biggest U.S. futures market, is employing the son of Senator Saxby Chambliss to lobby members of his father's congressional committee and other lawmakers on legislation that may increase trading at the exchange," reports Bloomberg's Ann Saphir.

The Washington Post's Michael Fletcher on the dueling party chairs:

"In Bush's absence, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman appeared before the NAACP on Thursday, and, in an unusually personal speech, apologized for attitudes that led many GOP politicians to ignore black voters, or to 'try to benefit politically from racial polarization' in years past. He noted that his grandfather, a Baltimore native, was a NAACP member and vowed that his party will do better. 'The party of Lincoln,' Mehlman said, 'will not be whole again, and won't truly reflect the dream of African American political empowerment until we effectively and forthrightly respond to the cause of the African American community.'" LINK

"Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, in his own remarks to the NAACP, was not buying the GOP's more inclusive message. 'The Republican Party's 'southern strategy' used in the 1960s and 1970s lives today,' Dean said. 'In 2000, they used the racially charged word 'quota' to divide African Americans. In 2004, they used gay marriage. And just you wait: In 2006 its going to be immigrants.'"

Mehlman's speech gets a USA Today article and agreement from the White House. LINK

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes that "Mehlman's [speech was] marked by stony silence during applause lines and even some heckling." LINK

Rush Limbaugh did not see the need to apologize. LINK

From the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: "Iraq and political controversy hurt images of Donald Rumsfeld and Howard Dean. Pentagon chief Rumsfeld gets positive ratings from 30%, while 37% are negative. That's down from 39%-34% positive in January. Democratic Chairman Dean's negatives swelled to 33% from 24% in January, while positive marks dropped to 17% from 22%."

Other schedule items:
The National League of Cities announces tax reform recommendations and releases its report on the failures of current tax policy at a 1:00 pm ET press briefing.

At a 9:00 am ET press briefing, Joan Fitz-Gerald, Colorado State Senate President and Chair of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, leads a discussion of the impact of Democrats on state legislatures and possible strategies for 2006 elections.

Millennium Challenge Corp. CEO Paul Applegarth joins Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos to speak about the Millennium Challenge Compact at 11:00 am ET.