Democrats Take Aim at Rove in Leak Case

Less than a week after one reporter went to jail for not revealing her source and two weeks after Time magazine's corporate parent surrendered volumes of its reporter's notes to a federal grand jury investigating the leak, the pot was stirred anew Sunday when Newsweek reported that Rove was the source for Time's Matthew Cooper.

On Monday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who had previously defended Rove, repeatedly declined to comment on the case amid a barrage of questions from reporters.

Still, the new information about Rove's role was emerging as a potential embarrassment for a White House that had scrupulously sought to avoid the kinds of investigations that plagued the Clinton administration.

It has also given Democrats a political issue.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, called for a congressional hearing, contending that the disclosure raised questions about "whether there was conspiracy with other White House staff to use classified information for the political purpose" of discrediting former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Wilson -- whose wife, Valerie Plame, was the outed CIA operative -- had publicly questioned intelligence that Bush used in making the case for war against Iraq.

The grand jury is investigating whether anyone in the administration leaked Plame's name to reporters. Deliberately disclosing the identity of a covert operative is a federal crime.

In September 2003, McClellan dismissed as "ridiculous" suggestions that Rove had been involved in the leak. "There is simply no truth to that suggestion," he said. "And I have spoken with Karl about it."

A month later, Bush was asked about the possible involvement of White House employees in the leak. "I want to know the truth," the president said. "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."