Trying to keep Sonny out of the morgue, again

Don Corleone: [seeing Sonny in the mortuary] Look how they massacred my boy.

Much is being made of the big scoop in the New York Daily News that indicates that Bush has known all along that Karl Rove was the source (or, a source) of the Plame leak. So Bush lied when he said initially that he would fire any White House leakers. Instead, it looks like Bush was simply pissed that Rove got caught.

Asked if he believed indictments were forthcoming, a key Bush official said he did not know, then added: "I'm very concerned it could go very, very badly."

"Karl is fighting for his life," the official added, "but anything he did was done to help George W. Bush. The President knows that and appreciates that."

Other sources confirmed, however, that Bush was initially furious with Rove in 2003 when his deputy chief of staff conceded he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.

Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.

But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussen [sic.] tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.

A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.

"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way," the source said.

While it's always pleasurable to have one's suspicions confirmed, what is more interesting -- to me -- is the scoop's author. As Josh Marshall points out, Tom DeFrank goes way, way back with the Bush I crowd, including co-writing James Baker's diplomatic autobiography. So you can bet he was given extraordinary access. How much you wanna bet the old man (either G.H.W. Bush or, more likely, Baker, at Bush I's request) asked DeFrank to cover this story and make sure that it is clearly and on-record that preznit was displeased and that he's able to distance himself from the collapse of his "Brain?"

If I'm wrong, and Marshall's coy suggestion that maybe DeFrank is signaling the Bush I crowd's relationship with the son is more strained than ever is right, then the cracks in the Republican party -- and it's leading dynasty -- are getting very ugly indeed.

But I don't think so. Don George is sending his very own Luca Brazi in to put the knife into Karl-o to save Sonny once again.