Bush's offense goes on defense

KRT Wire | 07/15/2005 | Bush's offense goes on defense: "Karl Rove, a master of the political attack with added credentials as a cunning operative, suddenly finds himself playing an extraordinarily defensive game, as a federal investigation of who revealed the identity of a CIA operative reaches high into the White House.

Rove, deputy chief of staff and architect of President Bush's political career, has reached the pinnacle of American politics with a blend of brainpower, discipline and ruthless aggressiveness.

But now, with the White House declining to publicly discuss what role Rove might have played in the possibly illegal disclosure of a covert agent's identity, the president's most dedicated brigadier has retreated to the bunker. And as a Time magazine reporter who drew on Rove as a source for his story about the agent testified to a grand jury this week, Bush publicly declined to elaborate on the case.

'Rove is not just any White House staffer. He is the man,' said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant with close ties to the White House. 'They haven't named it the `Roval Office' at this point, but that's coming down the pike. At least they should call it the `Rove Garden.''"