What the Definition of "leak" is

From GOP.com:

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, "visiting Iowa Wednesday, said senior Bush adviser Karl Rove rightly tried to steer a reporter away from a story about Iraq's nuclear intentions, but didn't illegally expose an undercover agent in doing so. 'A leak is when you ask a reporter to write a story. He was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story,' Mehlman ... told The Des Moines Register during a trip to Iowa."

Why that nice Mr. Rove couldn't have done the discouraging by saying merely "The Vice President had nothing to do with sending Wilson," and why he needed to bring Wilson's wife into it, were not discussed, apparently.

Cynical observers might think that Karl was slyly trying to get a reporter to write a story about Wilson's wife's job, but I guess that, if he didn't actually "ask" for that story, that wouldn't be a "leak."

It must be hard for Ken to see his mentor in such rapidly heating water...