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Bush under fire
Leaks, scandal, war and a floundering economy are rocking the foundations of a once invincible White House. Paul Harris reports from New York on why the Democrats suddenly scent victory

Sunday October 5, 2003
The Observer

The first email was already waiting for most White House staffers when they switched on their computers last Tuesday. It was terse. The Justice Department was investigating the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA officer. Staff were ordered to 'preserve all materials that might be relevant'.
A second email, sent late last Tuesday night, was longer but brutally specific. It demanded emails, phone records, letters, diary entries and calendars all be saved. Just to hammer home the point, the email added 'even if (their) destruction might otherwise be permitted'.

The message was simple; a witch hunt is going on in Washington. A fall guy - or two - needs to be found to explain who blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame as an act of revenge against her anti-war husband. ...

...But the allegation has thrust Rove into the spotlight from the back corridors and smoky rooms where he does his usual work as Bush's most trusted fixer and adviser. Few political relationships - except perhaps Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell - are as close in modern times as Rove and Bush.

He is a political animal who has been the guiding force in propelling Bush first to the governorship of Texas and then to the White House. He is a lifelong Republican and ruthless to his enemies. Bush dubs him 'the man with the plan' and the 'boy genius'. His enemies deride him as 'Bush's brain'.

But Rove has a murky history. In the 1970s he was investigated for running 'dirty tricks' seminars for Republican activists at the time of Watergate. In 1986, while running a Texas governorship campaign, he announced that a bugging device had been found in his office. The discovery hurt Rove's Democrat opponent, who promptly lost the election. Yet it was never discovered who planted the bug and - despite his denials - it is widely believed that Rove put it in his office himself. ...

...But there are other possible culprits. Some commentators are pointing to a growing rift between Bush and the hawkish wing of his administration in the shape of Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. While Bush has recently sought to distance his government from linking Iraq with the 11 September terrorist attacks, Cheney has persisted.

It was also members of Cheney's staff, including top aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, who pushed the Niger uranium story long after Wilson had investigated the matter. Cheney and Libby are both said to have been furious with Wilson's decision to go public. 'I think the signal could have come from the Vice-President to go after Wilson, to make sure that no one else speaks out,' Mel Goodman said. ...