Permission to Speak? Rove

The Valerie Plame affair is heating back up in DC and Time magazine manages to shout that Karl Rove is guilty without actually saying it. First they run this quote which names Rove and no other official:

FBI investigators looking into the criminal leak of a CIA agent’s identity have asked Bush Administration officials including senior political adviser Karl Rove to release reporters from any confidentiality agreements regarding conversations about the agent.

Then to top it off they run Rove's photo with the tag line "Permission to speak? Rove". You can feel the Time editors just begging release the info. Word is that the identity of the leaker is an "open secret" among the Washington press, but they can't release the info publicly as its all "off the record".

But now everyone with half an interest in politics will know that Karl Rove is almost certainly guilty of the criminal act of revealing the name of an undercover CIA operative. An act that's criminal btw, because George HW Bush pushed for the law for half a decade until Reagan signed it into law.

More over at Atrios and Talking Points Memo.