Rove appears at Aspen Ideas Fest

Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado:

"Rove appeared to be on the defensive on questions about Guantanamo, the Valerie Plame affair, Iraq and other issues. "

Rove made jokes about his hecklers and at one point referred to them as "people who fly in and out of Aspen in their jets." But he had his moments with the crowd as well, drawing applause now and then, and silencing it with the comment, "Republicans will keep their majorities in the House and Senate."

[snip]

Audience dismay with Rove widened during an exchange on the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Isaacson recalled that both Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recommended shutting down the detention center.

"And do what?" Rove responded. "When we close Gitmo, the question is 'What do we do with the bad guys at Gitmo?' What do you do with them?"

"That's my question," Isaacson shot back, to laughter.

He [Rove] placed the question in the realm of courts.

"We've been respectful of the courts while these issues worked their way through the courts," he said. Hissing from the audience drowned out the rest of his answer.

[snip]

As for the Plame affair, Rove stumbled and then refused to answer.

Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent whose identity administration sources revealed to conservative columnist Robert Novak after her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly challenged the administration's claims about Iraq's nuclear program. Her career with the CIA ended, and some of her sources may have been in jeopardy as a result of the leak.

Isaacson posed the question in the same way Clinton had Friday night. Issacson, parroting Clinton, pointed out that if a member of the Clinton administration had outed a CIA officer, "You'd be sending people to demand impeachment. You'd be playing it better than the Democrats can play it against you."

Rove then said that after a "careful, thoughtful, aggressive investigation," then the person responsible should be fired.

"Have confidence in the process," he said.

But Isaacson continued pressing on the issue asking, "Don't you have some regrets about that? That was [a] regrettable event."

"I'm going to respect the fact that there's an ongoing case," Rove said, again to hissing from the audience.