Josh Marshall has gone
95% of the way in cutting through the BS to raise the relevant issue in the Plame Affair (remember that?)
At the moment the discussion is about whether the doers can beat the rap. (Did the person at the White House know she was covert, etc.?) ...
But that's not the issue and it never has been. At least it hasn't been since very early on. Because the basic facts of the matter have been in plain sight from the beginning. And whether an aide to the president is indicted or goes to prison is largely an issue for that particular person.
The issue here -- from the beginning, and now to the end -- is whether the president accepts such behavior and what the standard operating procedure in the Bush White House is: Do you punish a political opponent by attacking his family if it means exposing one of the country's covert intelligence operatives and breaking the law?
That's a pretty straightforward standard. And by all the available evidence this White House considers it acceptable behavior.
The additional 5%: Directly, or by a wink and a nod, did Dubyanocchio order a campaign to get back at Joe Wilson by any means necessary? Did he know that somebody was actually going to give Plame up to Novak and other reporters before it was done? Or did Rove (or whoever) merely tell the president everything would be taken care of, don’t worry, you don't need to know the details, sir? Or, taking a lesson from Nixon, is the President sequestered entirely from the Dirty Tricks Division at the White House?
Right on cue to pound home Marshall’s point for him,
Time magazine notes
Investigators are pressing Administration officials to let journalists tell whatever they know about the leak of a CIA agent's identity.
FBI investigators looking into the criminal leak of a CIA agent’s identity have asked Bush Administration officials including senior political adviser Karl Rove to release reporters from any confidentiality agreements regarding conversations about the agent. If signed, the single-page requests made over the last week would give investigators new ammunition for questioning reporters who have so far, according to those familiar with the case, not disclosed the names of administration officials who divulged that Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson, worked for the CIA. ...
It's plain that White House officials are under some pressure to sign the documents. "They can't refuse," said one individual who's familiar with the case. "The worst thing to be accused of here is not cooperating with the investigation." But reporters are not likely to feel the same pressure. Journalists rarely divulge the identities of confidential sources even when threatened with contempt citations so the releases may make little difference. Still, in a post-9/11 world, a case involving the disclosure of a covert agent's identity could be taken very seriously by a judge, who would have the power to jail a member of the press for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.
So, stonewalling by the Administration about a criminal act could put a reporter or two behind bars while the malefactors at the White House gear up for the '04 campaign.