VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: KARL ROVE - 'FREE DON SIEGELMAN'

I got a chance to meet Karl Rove before he spoke at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles last night. See the video (33 seconds, below) of my brief encounter:

UPDATE: Transcript of the encounter which reveals one particularly interesting line...

Rove: “Hi, Karl Rove”

Alan: “Alan Breslauer”

Rove: “Hey Alan, nice to meet you”

Alan: “Do you mind holding this with me [inaudible - might be ”while we do this“]

Rove: ”What is this, what is this“

Rove: ”No, no, you can hold that one“

Alan: ”I'll hold it, all right“

Rove: ”You can hold that one, you can hold that one“

Rove:  ”I'll look skeptically at it“

Alan: ”Come on, just hold it“

Woman's Voice: ”You don't need to do this. You don't have to do that. No. No“

Alan: ”Sure, sure I do“

Rove: ”Nice to meet you, thanks“

Alan walking away but not in the video: ”Free him“

Why would Karl Rove care one way or the other about Siegelman's freedom if he had nothing to do with the case?

Later, Rove was confronted with a question about the Don Siegelman piece on 60 Minutes. The audio of Rove's answer is available below (2:37) with the transcript following below the video:

Question: It’s basically a widespread belief that when it comes to politics you play it rough. They have accused you of outing CIA agent Valerie Plame, planning the dismissals of US attorneys on political grounds, collusion with Jack Abramoff and most recently plotting the downfall of Don Siegelman. Do you play rough?

Rove: Ah, you know, in each one of those instances things have proven to be or turned out to be either non-existent or not true. But if there is no evidence for it, Rove is responsible. It’s like the 60 Minutes thing on Don Siegelman…

Question: Did you see it?

Rove: Yeah I did, you know, this woman says that she was a longtime Alabama operative and I asked her to get pictures of Governor Siegelman with - naked pictures of him with his aides - and, ah, that this is a number of requests I’ve made to her.

The fact of the matter is that I never met with this woman. I never made this request of her or anybody else. If she was a political operative she wasn’t involved in any of the campaigns that I was involved in in Alabama. I’ve never met the woman.

And I frankly thought it was really unusual, you know, there was CBS – this woman says she met with me in 2001 – I’m at the White House, where did we meet? You know, she was an opposition researcher, ah, who paid her? When did I start making these requests? I mean, I, I, the woman lied. I don’t think I’ve ever met the woman. I know I’ve never taken a meeting with her.

And yet the CBS – look, I’m a myth I’m not a human being. I may appear to be flesh and blood but I’m a myth.

Cross-posted at Brad Blog.

Technorati Tags: 60 Minutes, Alabama, Dana Jill Simpson, Don Siegelman, Free Don Siegelman, Justice, Karl Rove

Comments

[theBhc]

MASH!!! That was fantastic!!

[theBhc]

Yeah, she "lied." While Rove never met the woman, he also had nothing to do with the Plame affair, as he himself claimed.

[Eliz]

You masher you! I heard about this on Air America this morning and had no idea it was you! I wondered why on earth would you expose yourself to such a pure form of evil and now I understand. You brave soul you!
In case your readers haven't already heard, the lady whistle-blower in this case was driven off the road and her house mysteriously caught on fire 1 week before her Rove-damning testimony.
Siegelmen's attorney's office was also broken into -twice.
Coinkydink? Think not.
Kudos to you Mash!

[Lisa]

WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

You are a BRAVE tall man!!!

Excellent.

My hero for the day.

[Des]

DUDE, that's MASH-tastic!

I left a comment over on Brad Blog, too, but just wanted to reiterate what a great job you did with this, especially the audio clip of his answer to your very well-worded question. Waytago.

Also, to point out that you posted it at 3:20 in the AM. Hope you are getting some rest...

[Jamey]

Okay, Alan, you're officially my hero.