The Plame game
As the Valerie Plame leak story balloons from footnote in blogland to major scandal, there are differing perspectives on the seriousness of the thing. Jack Shafer in Slate argues that the story is unlikely to have legs. But Brad DeLong thinks heads will roll: "This makes it very likely that before this ends there will be multiple resignations either from the White House staff or from the CIA -- and the fact that it is the CIA that has initiated this tells us where they at least expect the resignations to be." Meanwhile, if history is any guide, the worst pitfalls for Bush lie not in what happened but in how the circle-the-wagons coverup mentality may tempt him or his deputies into new lies.
Quick recap: Valerie Plame is the wife of whistleblower Joseph Wilson, whose finding that there was no basis for the claim of a uranium connection between Niger and Iraq put the lie to a key plank of Bush's Jan. 2003 State of the Union address. After Wilson came forward to say as much, anonymous White House sources fed conservative columnist Robert Novak the tidbit that Wilson's wife, Plame, worked undercover for the CIA. This casual exposure of a CIA employee's identity for political purposes is a crime, and has the intelligence community seething. Now there is a Justice Department inquiry -- but how can an Ashcroft-overseen investigation be trusted?
Josh Marshall has blogged up a storm on the story since its revival last weekend. In August, John Dean offered a tough-minded perspective on the legal aspects.
Given the nature of the story, it's been fascinating to see how lackadaisically the White House is treating this sort of national security leak. Here's White House press secretary Scott McLellan's comment from the Monday press briefing: "I've seen the anonymous media reports. But like I said, there are anonymous media reports all the time. Are we supposed to go chasing down every single anonymous report?"
Actually, that is exactly what members of the Bush administration have done in the past. In particular, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been a notorious hard-liner on leaks. (Just Google "rumsfeld leaks" for a slew of stories.) "They ought to be imprisoned," he said about whoever was responsible for leaking details of a Pentagon war plan to the New York Times last year. "And if we find out who they are, they will be imprisoned."
When we find out who leaked Plame's name, will Rumsfeld stick to those guns?
|
