Tainted Love

"[W]e're still as close as we've ever been. We've been through a lot. When I look back at the presidency and my time in politics, uh, no question Karl had a lot to do with me getting here. And I value his friendship. We're very close."
-- George W. Bush, speaking with Brit Hume (14 December 2005)

Joe Conason, writing in today's Salon:

Following the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Rove's public relations apparatus accelerated the spinning of the national press corps with claims of innocence -- or if not innocence, then at least immunity from successful prosecution.

He hadn't lied. He had just forgotten. Who can remember every little phone conversation six months later?

As Conason rightly suspects, Rove and his handlers are running around with their hair on fire, hoping to forestall armageddon just a few days longer. Thank goodness, however, that we have a government vigorously committed to the investigation and exposure of presidential falsehoods, secret relationships, and clandestine meetings that compromise the nation's security, distract elected officials from fulfilling their public duties, and bring dishonor to the Oval Office. And thank goodness I have maintained healthy relationships with people in a position to know what's going on. Through sources known only to myself and my raft of lawyers, I have obtained top secret internal documents related to the Fitzgerald investigation, and I have decided -- after long, sleepless nights of meditation and anguished soul-searching -- to share my information with you. The unreleased report begins with an account of the President's relationship with Rove as it developed in early June 2003:

On that day, according to Mr. Rove, he saw the President in a hallway by an elevator, and he invited him to the Oval Office. According to Mr. Rove:

We had . . . had phone sex for the first time the week prior, and I was feeling a little bit insecure about whether he had liked it or didn't like it . . . . I didn't know if this was sort of developing into some kind of a longer-term relationship than what I thought it initially might have been, that maybe he had some regular girlfriend who was furloughed . . . .

According to Mr. Rove, he questioned the President about his interest in him. "I asked him why he doesn't ask me any questions about myself, and . . . is this just about sex . . . or do you have some interest in trying to get to know me as a person?" The President laughed and said, according to Mr. Rove, that "he cherishes the time that he had with me." He considered it "a little bit odd" for him to speak of cherishing their time together "when I felt like he didn't really even know me yet."

They continued talking as they went to the hallway by the study. Then, with Mr. Rove in mid-sentence, "he just started kissing me." He lifted his top and touched his chest with his hands and mouth. According to Mr. Rove, the President "unzipped his pants and sort of exposed himself," and he performed oral sex.

At one point during the encounter, someone entered the Oval Office. In Mr. Rove's recollection, "[The President] zipped up real quickly and went out and came back in . . . . I just remember laughing because he had walked out there and he was visibly aroused, and I just thought it was funny."