WTF Is It Now?!?

George W. Nixon
Fall guys, intimidation and leaked personal attacks on enemies are back in at the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. How Nixonian. How disappointing...

Political enemy number one is former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson.

Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times on July 6 that infuriated the White House. Eight days after Wilson published his piece, veteran reporter Robert Novak wrote a column that said, "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate [the reports]."

Wilson’s wife, it has been reported elsewhere, worked undercover. The "two senior officials" who blew her cover to Novak probably did something illegal. They certainly did something vile. Chuck Colson, the keeper of Nixon’s enemies list, would be so proud.

Wilson told Newsday, "This might be seen as a smear on me and my reputation, but what it really is is an attempt to keep anybody else from coming forward."

Political enemy number two is ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman.

Kofman filed a story that reported on morale problems of troops with the Third Infantry long stationed in Iraq. He had a quote from a soldier who said, "If Donald Rumsfeld was here, I’d ask him for his resignation." The Texans didn't 'ppreciate that.

After the piece ran, Matt Drudge says he got a call from a White House aide who anonymously leaked the inflammatory secret that Kofman is (young readers, please do not continue)…Canadian. A Canuck, reporting on our boys? I never...Oh yeah, the leaker also disclosed that Kofman is gay.

So far, the Bush Team hasn’t had as much luck with fall guys. CIA chief George Tenet tried to take the bullet for the "yellowcake" flap, but the flap flapped on. So NSC aide Stephen Hadley was sent out to take it on the chin. Neither resigned, neither was fired. They just took responsibility.

That is something the President has not done. - - - from an editorial by Dick Meyer, the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com.


Meanwhile...
Sen. Charles Schumer urged the FBI on Thursday to investigate government leaks that he said may have unmasked a CIA covert operative amid the political fight over prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Schumer said administration officials may have broken federal law in unmasking an operative who had been gathering information on weapons of mass destruction.

The senator sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller asking him to order an immediate criminal investigation.