Will Rove Go?
Maybe, but the Lies Will Continue Regardless

Jul 18, 2005

It has been revealed that President Bush’s senior advisor Karl Rove was the person who leaked the identity of an under-cover CIA agent to the press two years ago. Now there’s a lot of agitation in the media that Rove should resign, that he even may go to prison.

Why is this whole issue being stirred up now? If this matter were so critical, if this leak really jeopardized not only the lives of secret CIA agents, but the very "national security" of the country, as has been said, why was it not pursued two years ago?

In fact, as soon as the CIA agent was identified in an article by journalist Robert Novak, Rove was publicly mentioned as the likely source for the leak. In any event, it was obvious that the leak had come from the White House as retaliation against the agent’s husband. This man, a former U.S. ambassador, had exposed Bush’s lie about Saddam Hussein trying to buy uranium in Niger.

If this issue wasn’t pursued two years ago, it’s because the people who really call the shots–the top bureaucrats who run government agencies and the ruling class they serve–wanted the war on Iraq to proceed unhampered. And if they have decided to pursue the issue now, it’s probably because they want to send a warning to the Bush administration.

What exactly makes the ruling class unhappy–that we don’t know, because they don’t discuss such things openly. But we do know that strings are pulled behind closed doors. It has happened before; it has even led to the removal of a president. Nixon was certainly not the only politician who committed illegal acts and lied about it. If he got pushed out of the presidency, it was for other reasons–reasons that were not discussed publicly.

The U.S. ruling class wants the U.S. president to carry out its agenda. Today that agenda includes running the war in Iraq and making changes in Social Security so that the ruling class can put its hands on some of that huge fund without interference. Bush has certainly pursued that agenda, but in ways that stir up a lot of opposition. So this whole commotion about Rove may be a warning to Bush that he needs to carry out the agenda without stirring up so much opposition in the population.

It remains to be seen whether Karl Rove will go or stay. But if he goes, it will not be because he lied. And whether he goes or stays, the lies of the Bush administration will not stop. Nor will the attacks that Bush, and the presidents before him, have been carrying out on working people at home and abroad, in the interests of the U.S. ruling class.