The Madness Continues

Time’s Matt Cooper, who apparently double-crossed Karl Rove by writing an article to the effect that the administration was making war on Joe Wilson after Rove answered Cooper’s questions about Wilson on deep background in the course of a phone call by Cooper that was ostensibly about welfare reform, was on Meet the Press this morning. I didn’t see the appearance, nor have I seen a transcript. But the Associated Press is already trumpeting Cooper’s televised statement that Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, “Scooter” Libby, was a second source for Cooper’s writing about Valerie Plame:

Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide was among the sources for a Time magazine reporter’s story about the identity of a CIA officer, the reporter said Sunday.
Until last week, the White House had insisted for nearly two years that vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove were not involved in the leaks of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity.
Cooper said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he spoke to Libby after first learning about Wilson’s wife from Rove.
On Sunday, Cooper also said there may have been other sources for that information. He declined to elaborate.

Missing from the AP’s breathless account is the fact that Cooper, not Libby, brought up the fact that Plame was responsible for sending Joe Wilson to Niger. Time’s online exclusive, “Matthew Cooper: What I Told The Grand Jury”, says:

On background, Cooper had asked Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson

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