In a
diary comment yesterday and a
post at Needlenose last night, I've tried to raise a simple issue: Politically speaking, why are we sitting around waiting for Patrick Fitzgerald to do our work for us on the Plame case?
We don't know who he will indict (if anyone), or when. And even if he indicts Karl Rove on Monday, the legal case will be drawn out and obscured by the GOP/media smoke-and-mirrors crowd.
Rather than wait to jump on a legal bandwagon, we should recognize the huge values issue sitting right in front of us.
Look at what we already know from published reports:
-- Lewis Libby, VP Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told at least two reporters that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.
-- Karl Rove, Dubya's own closest advisor, told reporters that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.
-- There is substantial reason to believe that calls were made from Air Force One by Ari Fleischer and Dan Bartlett, telling reporters that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.
The average, apolitical swing voter doesn't care about covert classifications or the intricacies of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. But on a gut level, they understand that White House officials are not supposed to be running around saying to reporters, "Hey, did you know so-and-so works for the CIA?"
Regardless of whether it's technically legal or illegal, it sounds like treason -- and it's hard proof that the folks in the Bush administration don't "share our values." And it's proof that Dubya doesn't share our values either, since half his adminstration was blabbing to reporters about who works for the CIA and he hasn't done a damn thing. Is he paralyzed? An empty suit? What's wrong with him?
You want a Democratic agenda? How's this: When a reporter calls us to ask if someone works at the CIA, instead of saying, "Yeah, I heard that, too," we'll hang up the phone. We'll have enough conscience and enough values to do that. Okay?
That's the message every Democrat who gets on TV this weekend should be communicating, and progressive blogs should be pushing them to do it. It's not a matter of legal or illegal, it's right or wrong -- and this administration has no sense of what the difference is.
If Pat Fitzgerald gives us some indictments to bolster this case next week or next month, then that's just icing on the cake. We'll be able to make plenty more hay then. But we've got enough to get started with now.