"Fire Karl Rove"

I really want to see the end of Karl Rove. I want him out of the White House, away from the Republican party, and a safe distance from all despicable politicians everywhere. I have a fantasy that he'd be picked in one of those delightful detentions the administration is arranging with foreign governments... the ones where the charge won't stand up in a court of law here so the victim gets arrested in a country with a closed court system as a favor... Oh, anyway.

Karl Rove is one of a number of people who have been implicated in the publication of an undercover CIA operative's undercover name in a major US paper. Early in the investigation, the Administration assured the public that if the leak came from the White House, the leaker would be fired. This was probably overzealous spin on their part. Regardless of the event, the best line to take at the time would have been "they will be dealt with appropriately." You can promise a lynching, but there are many circumstances which make a lynching inappropriate.

Dems and progressives have been trying to sway public opinion by insisting the White House "Fire Karl Rove".

I rate this frame a C+. Here's why:

• While it uses the President's image as a man of his word to get leverage, it focuses too narrowly on one person. Rove was the first person named by reporters who received the leak, he isn't the only one. And "Dump the White House Staff" is just impractical as a rallying cry.
  
• By focusing so closely on Rove it reveals the degree to which he irritates those out of power. So this becomes a convenient excuse to get rid of a thorn. But the White House has no interest in winning the votes of people who have a problem with Rove.
  
• Rove has been fired by two Bush administrations already. Once for leaking to Robert Novak. Clearly, firing him a third time isn't going to change anything.
  

Suggestions for improvement:

W. wanted his presidency to be in the same mold as Ronald Reagan's. Instead he's drifting closer to Richard Nixon's. Whether this turns out to be the "Iran-Contra Affair", a positive event for the GOP, or Watergate, which drove a generation of thinking voters to the Democrat column, has everything to do with spin. Focus on short-circuiting the spin.

• At a time when we need foreign and domestic intellegence to be at full capacity, it destroyed the covert career of a dedicated, courageous, intellegent public servant.
  
• It put her contacts at risk and compromised US intellegence sources.
  
• It put her and her family at risk for retribution by foreign agents.
  
• It was not essential to fighting the war on terror, it hampered our efforts to fight it more effectively.
  

Oh, and be especially wary of any puppy-dog-eyed agents of the administration testifying with cameras running.