ROVE IS STILL WRIGGLING AWAY FROM THE PLAME SCANDAL

In this interview with POLITICO's Mike Allen, Rove gives a "non-denial denial" to this question:

MR. ALLEN: Okay, and the last question about this: Why didn't you come forward and deny Chris Matthews' statement that you had said that Joe Wilson's wife was "fair game"?

MR. ROVE: Because the lawyers, both my lawyer and the prosecutor's office, asked me not to say things, not to be talking. And as I recount in the book, the person who said "fair game" was Chris Matthews, not me. Chris Matthews says in a phone conversation with Joe Wilson, "I've just talked to Karl Rove, and he said, 'Your wife is fair game.'" In reality, it was a phone conversation with Chris Matthews in which he asked me the question, "Is she fair game." It's not a phrase I would use. He had previously used it—this is on a Monday. He'd used it the previous Thursday in a broadcast where he said to Trent Lott, "Is Valerie Plame fair game?" So I got blamed for Chris Matthews' phrase. He was one of the people at the end of this process who seemed not to be interested in reporting that I might be indicted but gleeful in announcing that I was going to be indicted. And in the Spring of 2006, he is one of the people, you know, most intent during that April-May period in declaring that I'm—I'm facing imminent indictment, at a point where I had—where I'd been told by the prosecutor the previous October, you know, "You've rocked my world. It's over."

But Mr. Rove, what did you say to Matthews?