Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

My mom in all her infinite wisdom used to tell me when I was a child that I needed to choose my friends carefully. "People cannot judge you by your family members, because we have no control over who we are related to" she would say "But you will be judged by the company you choose to keep. Make certain that the those you choose to associate with are honorable people."

My mom's words keep going through my mind as I read the most recent news regarding Karl Rove and his role in the "outing" of CIA agent Valerie Plame. For those who haven't been following the story, Newsweek published an article this week that confirms Rove was the White House source who leaked the information about Valerie Plame being a CIA agent involved in covert operations dealing with WMD.

The right is jockeying for position saying Rove never actually mentioned Plame's name, that he mentioned her only by calling her "Wilson's wife." They are also trying to distance themselves from Wilson's entire fact finding trip saying they didn't have anything to do with sending him to Niger that it was Plame's idea all along. Okay, even assuming the above statements are true, tell me again how this information changes the magnitude of what he did?

Now, during the January 12 White House press briefing Scott McClellan was grilled by the journalists present about the Rove case. He threw up a wall stating that he couldn't talk about an ongoing investigation. Okay, that's fine. Scotty doesn't need to talk now. There will be plenty of time to talk later when the evidence is presented by special prosecutor Fitzgerald.

Until then I have to wonder, if we can be judged by the quality of those with whom we choose to associate what does the character of Rove say about those who claim him as their own fair-haired boy?