This morning, on his national radio show Focus on the Family, James Dobson revealed the contents of a confidential conversation he had had with Karl Rove, which had somehow—and mysteriously—convinced him to support Harriet Miers. (The Senate Judiciary Committee had earlier threatened to subpoena Dobson over the secret “information” he claimed to have.) The full transcript of Dobson’s address is available here. He said, “Karl Rove didn’t tell me anything about the way Harriet Miers would vote on cases that may come before the Supreme Court” and explains his elusive comments to holding privileged information as a matter of timing.
So, what was it that I couldn’t talk about? The answer has everything to do with timing. It’s very important to remember that when I first made that statement about knowing things that I shouldn’t know, and shared that with my colleagues the day that the President made his announcement, maybe two or three hours after his press conference.
And then, that very night, I went on the Brit Hume program—the FOX News program—and…and talked about the President’s nomination. And then, the following day—Tuesday—I recorded a statement for FOF, which was heard on Wednesday. And that is the last time that I said that I had information that was confidential and that I really couldn’t talk about.
Why? Because what I was told by Karl Rove had been confirmed and reported from other sources by that time.
What did Karl Rove say to me that I knew on Monday that I couldn’t reveal? Well, it’s what we all know now, that Harriet Miers is an Evangelical Christian, that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion, that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life. In other words, there is a characterization of her that was given to me before the President had actually made this decision. I could not talk about that on Monday. I couldn’t talk about it on Tuesday. In fact, Brit Hume said, “What church does she go to?” And I said, “I don’t think it’s up to me to reveal that.” Do you remember my saying that?
What I meant was, I couldn’t get into this. But by Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, all this information began to come out and it was no longer sensitive. I didn’t have the right to be the one that revealed it and that’s what I was referring to.
Well, that was worth holding our breath for. No explicit discussion of Roe v. Wade, just what is now generally known—that Miers is an evangelical Christian. On the other hand, the fact that Rove could so fully assure Dobson on Miers’ position on abortion is telling, and should cast doubt on any liberal hopes that Miers wouldn’t vote to overturn Roe.
Meanwhile, Dobson’s not the only one with a super-secret intelligence source. According to ex-CIA official Larry Johnson, the White House got its supply of ingredients to bake the Plamegate yellow cake from people who know their pantone, the Italian Intelligence Service (SISMI). Johnson, who bases his information on reports “knowledgeable friends”—presumably from his old haunt in the CIA, provides a careful history of how Italian information on WMDs were discredited before the war, only to be bounced around and revived again.
And finally, in a groundbreaking exclusive with the San Francisco Chronicle, Dubya’s secret source—the ultimate intelligence operative—Mr. Omnipotent reveals Himself. (This is a fun one.)
