Republicans Outside White House Are Talking

For the second straight day, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan refused to answer questions about Rove's possible role in disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA operative, saying Tuesday -- as he had the day before -- that comments might damage an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter.

"I want to be helpful to the investigation. I don't want to jeopardize anything in that investigation," McClellan said during another contentious briefing as reporters bombarded him with questions about the White House deputy chief of staff.

Yet, at the same time, the Republican National Committee -- closely allied with the White House and chaired by Rove protege Ken Mehlman -- distributed a 3 1/2 -page set of talking points defending the president's chief political strategist and attacking Democrats and the CIA operative's husband, an outspoken critic of the administration's Iraq policy.

A case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

Hardly, old Washington hands said: The White House's strategy appears to be a textbook example of trying to change the subject by shifting the focus.

"The RNC is trying to get the attention off the White House," said David Gergen, a Harvard University government professor who has worked for presidents of both parties. "A week ago, this was all about the press. Now it's back to the White House, which is not what they want."

The controversy exploded in recent days after disclosures that Rove was a source for a July 17, 2003, article on Time magazine's website. That article questioned whether the Bush administration had "declared war" on former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had traveled to Africa in 2002 to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase weapons-grade uranium.

On July 6, 2003, the New York Times published an op-ed article by Wilson criticizing those claims -- a key underpinning for the White House's case for invading Iraq. The article on Time's website, co-written by reporter Matthew Cooper, cited "some government officials" as identifying Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA officer and saying that she had been involved in dispatching her husband to Africa.