Here's a statement made Sunday by a prominent senator in regard to the Valerie Plame leak: "We ought to get to the bottom of it so it can be evaluated, again, by the American people." Nothing particularly controversial there. For the nearly three years since Plame's job with the CIA was revealed in the Washington Post's pages by Robert Novak, Democrats have been repeating variations of that line.
It's a startling statement, though, despite the well-worn content. That's because Arlen Specter said it - and on Fox News no less.
President Bush, face the music: It's time to come clean about your role in the leak. While Specter acknowledged that it's likely that Bush is entirely in the clear, at least legally, the White House's inexorable refusal to open up about the leak is just the latest act in the administration's drama of corruption and lies.
As the saga of Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, Judy Miller, Scooter Libby, et al. continues, it's striking how absurd the story has become.
Someone close to the White House leaked the identity of the wife of an ambassador who publicly questioned one of the Administration's justifications for the Iraq war in order to damage the muckraker's reputation by implying the only reason he was able to expose those inconsistencies was because his CIA agent wife may have used her influence to get him a contract job in Africa, and it turns out the leak originated at least as high up as the vice president's chief of staff (and higher, if you ask him)?
Even the writers of "Commander In Chief" wouldn't bother with such a ridiculous plotline.
Bush and Cheney continue to refuse to answer any questions about the leak, citing their proximity to the ongoing investigation as a gag on their commenting. So far, all that has come out of the investigation are perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Libby. He is effectively charged with lying to the FBI and a grand jury investigating the leak, but not with actually leaking Plame's identity.
Since Libby has not yet been charged with ultimate responsibility for the leak, we can only assume that investigators are looking for bigger fish to fry.
At this point, there is no legal or ethical reason Bush and Cheney shouldn't talk about their roles in the leak. Their silence merely adds to the mountain of suspicion that one or both of them may have been involved in some way. If they're blameless, why not tell us?
Libby asserted this week that Bush declassified intelligence in the summer of 2003 with the specific intent of using it to publicly discredit war critics. While a chain of events from Bush's declassification to the leak of Plame's identity may be difficult to establish, the inconsistencies in the varying accounts only add to the suspicion.
It's time for the White House to come clean. Specter said on Sunday that "it is necessary for the president and vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened."
As the evidence mounts, we couldn't agree more.
