Courtney slams Simmons over Rove defense

Amazing. Simply amazing.

With a sub base in Groton to save, 2nd district Congressman Rob Simmons should have alot to do but not only does the Congressman he have time to make a quick pitstop at Gitmo and try the rice, he also has the time to make what can be only considered "outrageous" comments regarding the Karl Rove scandal

Simmons claims that Karl Rove did not violate a law in outing CIA operative Valerie Plame because she worked at Langley VA. Anyone who has followed this case knows that the statements from Simmons doesn't even pass the smell test as numerous news outlets reported that Plame was not only a undercover at the time, but worked undercover as an anaylsis at Brewster-Jennings & Associates (a CIA cover job).

Wisely, Democratic challenger, Joseph Courtney (pictured), pounced on Simmons'silly defense of Rove.

Simmons also said that neither Rove nor any other White House official violated a law intended to protect covert agents working abroad, especially since Plame worked at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

Rove, President Bush's key political operative, is embroiled in a controversy over who leaked the identity of Plame to the media, including a New York Times reporter who has been jailed for refusing to identify her source for a story she did not write.

Plame is the wife of former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, who publicly protested Bush's assertion in his 2003 State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein was seeking to obtain uranium from Africa.

Courtney on Monday pounced on a comment Simmons was reported to have made last week that the Justice Department investigation into the Plame leak was "much ado about nothing."

He accused Simmons of "parroting his minders at the Bush White House in an effort to save Rove's job."

"It's disturbing and disheartening that Rob Simmons' convictions seem mushy as best," Courtney said, referring to Simmons' previously reported statements that the exposure was "a very serious matter" and "may be a matter of life and death."

Courtney continued the offensive today, arguing that "the only thing that's changed from the beginning is the fact that we now know Karl Rove was involved.

[...]

Simmons, meanwhile, insisted that "assertions that Rove or the White House staff violated the law do not ring true" and that the brouhaha was simply "just another case of Washington partisan politics."

Simmons said he had spent a decade living undercover on assignment for the CIA and that he knew of "the risks associated with the pernicious activity of "naming names."'

If Simmons knows the risks of naming names, then can he explain how Rove's outing of Joe Wilson's wife (simply for political revenge), exposing the cover company she worked for, and placing other agents lives in danger (assume that if her cover was blown, that agents she worked with were in trouble also) not a big deal and just partisan politics?

With only 25 percent of the country believing that the President is being truthful about the White House involvement in the Plame case, you would think SImmons would be wise not to make such comments.

Maybe it's that Gitmo rice.