An emailer prods my pop-cultural hypothalamus:
“Double super secret background” … actually is a joking wink reference to the movie “Animal House”. The fraternity had been placed on ‘double super secret probation’ by the evil Dean. Cooper probably just used that as joking slang (or Turd Blossom did :-).
Since Matt is one of the funniest and kindest men in D.C., I’ll bet it was his joke. But my point stands. This leak wasn’t a minor one, according to Rove. So why did he think it was major and didn’t want his fingerprints anywhere near it? Another emailer asks who told Rove:
How did Karl Rove know that Ms. Plame was a CIA operative? I cannot imagine that the WH keeps a list of CIA personnel. If in fact Ms. Plame was an undercover CIA operative, her employment with the CIA should have been known by a relatively small number of people within the agency. Everyone else should have know her as her cover profession. I’m assuming undercover CIA operatives do not use a CIA desk job as their cover. Somewhere along this information trail someone knowingly released the identity of Ms. Plame as a covert employee. Was this at the request of Karl Rove or others within the WH? Did he have clearance? Should he have had clearance?
I don’t know. But Fitzgerald may.
The Dish 