It's Karl Rove. Those White House spinners who insist that Bush political guru Karl Rove had nothing to do with leaking the name of Joseph Wilson's wife, then-CIA operative Valerie Plame, to Robert Novak and other journalists ought to get themselves over to the Guardian's audio website.

Click on "White House blamed for naming CIA agent," which will open up an audio file of Guardian reporter Julian Borger explaining the leak story for the benefit of British listeners. Among other things, Borger says:

The finger has so far pointed at Karl Rove, who is the political maestro in the Bush team, and there is no one closer in political terms to Bush than Karl Rove. And several of the journalists are saying privately, yes, it was Karl Rove who I talked to. Now the thing is that the journalists are not going to name Karl Rove publicly, because you don't name your sources, and to do would discredit them as journalists. So the White House is safe for the time being. But Karl Rove's name is very much out there.

So why doesn't Rove publicly release journalists he may have spoken with from any promises of confidentiality that were made? I think we know the answer to that.

Thanks for Media Log reader J.D. for the link.

Al Gore, cable mogul. It looks like the former vice-president is about to take his first step toward building a liberal alternative to the Fox-Rush axis. And thanks to Y.H. for that. (I see that Drudge has it, too.)