Now that the DOJ is launching a full-scale investigation of the outing of Valerie Plame, let's do a quick look at what we've learned so far.
The right spent the better part of the eight years of the Bill Clinton presidency trying to find anything that resembled a scandal. Real estate deals, travel agency discrepancies, sexual misconduct of female employees, gays in the military, Hillary's health care plan - and they came up empty-handed until ultimately they found an intern who bragged about giving him oral sex. And long after his terms ended, we still heard of vandalism in the White House (untrue), his allowing of terror to grow (untrue again), how Kosovo was a deflection for the aforementioned oral sex, how his hunt for bin Laden was a coverup for the aforementioned oral sex, why his bombing of Baghdad was a diversion for the aforementioned oral sex, and of course the relentless reminder of the aforementioned oral sex.
The result: He was impeached because he got oral sex.
Today, the country's learning of just one in a string of scandals brewing in the Bush White House: How senior administration officials - to avenge for Joseph Wilson's criticism of the administration's acceptance of the flawed intelligence regarding Iraq's supposed purchase of uranium in Africa - revealed to a number of reporters and columnists that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA operative.
The ramifications: Plame and everyone she came in contact with during her tenure overseas are now in danger, and could be killed.
Robert Novak, the first to report this information, says, "There is no great crime here." And he's already parsing words: "Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this." Okay. So maybe they saw him at a conference. They sent him an e-mail. They got the info to him somehow. He even said so all along.
As much as the wingnut idealists would like to believe otherwise, there is a great crime here. And it's greater than staining a blue dress. And in terms of potential human harm or death, it's definitely greater than Watergate.
Maybe the jig is finally up for this reckless and dangerous administration.
And maybe we'll see the culprits being led away from the White House with their jackets over their heads before they throw more Americans in front of the bus in the name of "patriotism" and "loyalty."
And maybe, just maybe, they'll start at the top: Karl Rove. Then work their way down to Mr. Bush.
