Lefties are in a twitters over MC Rove appearing on the Sunday news show today. Specifically this blog tries to make a tadoo out of Matt Cooper appearing (how convieniant) on MTP after Rove.

“Following Karl Rove‚Äôs appearance this morning on ‚ÄúMeet The Press‚Äù David Gregory (who is involved in the Plame scandal. More on that later.) held a round table discussion which included former Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Cooper, who was dead center in the Valerie Plame scandal, stops just short of calling Karl Rove a liar, insisting that he did, in fact, leak Valerie Plame‚Äôs name to him in 2003.”

You got to love the left’s collective denial and utter dismissal of the fact that we all know that Richard Armitage was the leaker, but hey, who am I to steal their fun?

But the fact is that Matt Cooper might have just stuck his foot in his mouth, and he did so to David Gregory (oh, the irony!).

Let’s go back to Newsweek’s Michael Isokoff and his article “What Rove told Cooper on Plame case“.

“In a brief conversation with Rove, Cooper asked what to make of the flap over Wilson’s criticisms. NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. (The e-mail was authenticated by a source intimately familiar with Time’s editorial handling of the Wilson story, but who has asked not to be identified because of the magazine’s corporate decision not to disclose its contents.) Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a “big warning” not to “get too far out on Wilson.” Rove told Cooper that Wilson’s trip had not been authorized by “DCIA”‚ÄîCIA Director George Tenet‚Äîor Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, “it was, KR said, wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip.” Wilson’s wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: “not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there’s still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger … ”

Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame’s name or knew she was a covert operative. Nonetheless, it is significant that Rove was speaking to Cooper before Novak’s column appeared; in other words, before Plame’s identity had been published. Fitzgerald has been looking for evidence that Rove spoke to other reporters as well. “Karl Rove has shared with Fitzgerald all the information he has about any potentially relevant contacts he has had with any reporters, including Matt Cooper,” Luskin told NEWSWEEK.”

In fact Matt Cooper himself told Fitzgerald - under oath I might add - that Rove NEVER mentioned Valerie Plame to Cooper. Let’s also not forget who called who with the baited question.

If Cooper wants to change his story now then he needs to explain why he committed perjury then.