After two days of tough questions from reporters, the White House said yesterday that President Bush continues to have confidence in his chief political adviser and deputy chief of staff.
The response came despite evidence that emerged on Monday showing Karl Rove leaked information about a covert CIA official to the media, something the White House has denied over the last two years.
Under fire in the White House briefing room yesterday about the scandal, the president's spokesman, Scott McClellan, said: "Any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president. They wouldn't be working here at the White House if they didn't have the president's confidence."
However, Mr McClellan finds his credibility at stake for telling the White House press corps on September 16th, 2003, that it was a "ridiculous suggestion" that Mr Rove could be involved, and that "if anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration".
The president listened intently yesterday when a reporter asked him directly at an Oval Office photo opportunity whether he would fire Mr Rove in keeping with his pledge last year to dismiss any leakers in the case, but Mr Bush refused to respond.
On Capitol Hill Senate Minority leader Harry Reid said: "The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration. I trust they will follow through on this pledge. If these allegations are true, this rises above politics and is about our national security."
Former Democratic presidential candidate senator John Kerry said "Karl Rove ought to be fired". The issue has become a major political embarrassment for President Bush, and observers noted that senior Republicans have not rushed to defend Mr Rove, who may be guilty of a crime if it is shown that he knew his action would compromise a covert CIA operative.
With the president about to engage in possibly the fiercest struggle of his presidency in the nomination of a judge to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, he needs Mr Rove more than ever.
According to a July 2003 e-mail that Newsweek published on Monday, Mr Rove told Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson "apparently works" for the CIA and that she had authorised a trip to Niger by her husband to check allegations that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.
Mr Wilson found no evidence of this and had subsequently accused the Bush administration of using discredited intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. His wife's name and CIA affiliation was leaked by two unnamed "administration officials" to columnist Robert Novak, who disclosed it first in his syndicated column in July 2003.
Mr Wilson claimed the leak was an attempt to discredit him and his report from Niger. Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday: "It's disappointing that once again, so many Democrat leaders are taking their political cues from the far-left. The bottom line is Karl Rove was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise and the Democrats are engaging in blatant partisan political attacks."
When a reporter asked Mr McClellan yesterday if Mr Rove committed a crime, the White House spokesman replied: "This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation." The investigation was already under way in 2003 when McClellan assured the public Rove wasn't involved, another reporter pointed out.