Plame Blame Game, Round-Up I

White House officials, we’re sure, were none too happy this morning to awake to a second week of near-saturation coverage of the Valerie Plame/Matt Cooper/Karl Rove leak investigation. In fact one could probably spend all day today just reading the various articles on the story. Any week that Karl Rove makes both Time and Newsweek’s covers–and not in a good way–is not going to be a good one for the White House.

The must-reads, of course, are Cooper’s long-awaited “What I Told the Grandy Jury” Time article, and Howard Fineman’s cover story.

Bloomberg’s Dick Keil and William Roberts also weigh in with a well-sourced story: “The fate of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove may rest with the old Watergate question: What did he know and when did he know it?”

Again a week where “Watergate” and “Karl Rove” are used in the same lede of a wire article on Monday morning isn’t a good one.

Scott McClellan, after dodging reporters on Thursday and Friday (much to the griping of some White House scribes), will again face a battery of questions today at the morning gaggle and the 1 p.m. daily press briefing. Friday’s press treatment, a quick airborne gaggle with deputy Trent Duffy added little to the debate:

Q: Trent, someone speaking on Mr. Rove’s behalf to The Washington Post and The New York Times has made it clear that he talked to Robert Novak before he wrote his piece outing Valerie Plame. Is that your understanding, that he had a conversation with Mr. Novak prior to that piece?

MR. DUFFY: We’ll continue to decline comment on this because it’s a pending investigation. As the President said this week, he doesn’t want to prejudge the investigation that needs to proceed. Past that, I don’t have anything to add.

….

Q: — the President’s confidence in Mr. Rove unchanged, enhanced?

MR. DUFFY: Nothing to add beyond what Scott has said this week.

Today, we imagine, will be a little tougher to escape the press corps.

ASIDE: Is it just us or has it been a while since we were reminded that Judy Miller is in jail? Seems Matt Cooper has stolen the thunder for a bit.

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