Karl Rove vs. the Liberal Media...

Hi, everybody. I'm John Gibson reporting tonight for Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us.

Something a little different tonight. The guest host, me, authors the "Talking Points Memo". In today's Paul Krugman (search) column in The New York Times, Krugman opens by saying, "FOX News Channel's John Gibson wants to give Karl Rove (search) a medal." That prominent mention was designed to gin up hate mail from the Democratic blogs and liberal talk radio —that's the radio without listeners. — And it has worked. I'm now getting a ton of outrage e-mail.

The message: Anyone who would defend Karl Rove and whoever doesn't recognize the sanctified status of Ambassador Joe Wilson and his CIA wife Valerie Plame (search) is beneath contempt. So, I guess I am to conclude that the Democrats think we aren't allowed to know that it was a CIA secret agent, Valerie Plame, who recommended her husband to go to Niger (search) to check out what she called a crazy report that Saddam Hussein (search) wanted to buy the nuclear bomb material yellow cake from that country.

We aren't allowed to know that her husband got the message he was supposed to debunk this "crazy report?" Do you think we have a right to know that? I think we do. I think we have a right to know how Joe Wilson came to be the guy who was sent off to investigate if Saddam was trying to buy nuclear bomb material.

Well, Wilson came back and reported that the story was false. The president and vice president didn't accept his report as the final truth. Think we should know why they rejected his report? Maybe they knew his wife put him up to it and the fix was in.

Why does her identity have to be a secret? She had a desk job at Langley for the last six years. So maybe it's really because she didn't want her role in this put-up job to be known?

I looked up a few Krugman columns from the past couple of Bush-bashing years. In October, 2004, Krugman accused the Bush administration of a culture of cover-ups. In March, 2004, Krugman praised John Dean's book "Worse Than Watergate," which attacks Bush for declaring too much information secret. In April, 2004, Krugman attacked Vice President Cheney for secrets surrounding the energy task force.

Bush keeps a secret, bad. But when the anti-Bush forces insist on secrecy, covert status for the person who lined up a damning report on the reasons for the war in Iraq, that's OK.

No. They can't have it both ways. And when I said Karl Rove should get a medal for telling us who was behind that report, I was only barely half kidding. That's the "Talking Points Memo". Apologies to Bill.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

No "Most Ridiculous Item" on Friday, July 15.