Karen Hughes, one of President Bush's longest-serving and closest advisers, said Wednesday that the public disclosure of a CIA operative's name was a disservice to the president and "very disruptive to democracy."
Hughes said she was confident that her fellow Texan and sometime rival, Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, didn't leak the name to a syndicated columnist because "Karl has said that he was not involved."
Bush has ordered the White House staff to cooperate with an FBI investigation of the incident, which has escalated into a political controversy on the eve of the 2004 presidential race.
