WASHINGTON – Democrats on Monday called for the administration to fire White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, or at least to yank his security clearance in the face of Rove’s own lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledging Sunday that the presidential adviser spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Plame’s name as a CIA officer.
“The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “I trust they will follow through on this pledge. If these allegations are true, this rises above politics and is about our national security.”
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said it is “disturbing that this high-ranking Bush adviser is not only still working in the White House, but now has a significant role in setting our national security policy.”
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called on Bush to suspend Rove’s security clearances.
Rove has maintained from the beginning that he neither knew her name nor leaked it to anyone.
Rove’s conversation with Cooper took place after Plame’s husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, suggested that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on banned weapons to justify the invasion of Iraq. Wilson has suggested his wife’s name was leaked as retaliation.
National Guard misses recruit goal
The Army National Guard missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength, the Pentagon said Monday. The guard sought 5,032 new soldiers in June but signed up only 4,337, a 14 percent shortfall. The only other arm of the military that missed its June recruiting goal was the Navy Reserve, which fell 8 percent short.
Virginia: Mother puts girls in trunk
A mother driving from Alabama to Loudoun County forced two of her daughters, ages 10 and 12, to take turns riding in the trunk because the four-door sedan was cramped with three other passengers and a dog, authorities said Monday. Cheryl Ann Schoonmaker, 38, has been charged with abuse and cruelty to children for allegedly rotating the two girls in and out of the trunk of the Nissan Sentra during the July 1 trip, which took more than eight hours.
Arizona: Children gone in slayings
Authorities on Monday were searching for two young children missing from a Queen Creek home where their grandparents and an uncle were found slain the night before. Eighteen-month-old Bryan Cervantes and his 3-year-old sister, Jennifer, were believed to be with their father, Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala, 34, who may have been headed for Mexico, officials with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said. The children’s mother was not at home at the time of the slayings, investigators said.
Utah: School destroyed in blaze
Fire destroyed a junior high school in Salt Lake City on Monday, less than seven weeks before the start of the new school year. No serious injuries were reported, and about 10 adults who had been inside Wasatch Junior High School escaped, authorities said. The cause of the blaze has not been determined.
California: Toddler dies in shootout
A toddler girl was shot and killed when her intoxicated father used her as a shield during a fiery gunbattle with police in south Los Angeles after a standoff that lasted three hours, authorities said. Police Chief William Bratton said Monday that his officers were well within department policy when they shot car wash owner Jose Raul Pena, 34, on Sunday. Pena also was killed; an officer was shot in the shoulder but was expected to recover. Autopsies will determine whether the bullet that killed 19-month-old Susie Lopez was fired by police or her father.
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