White House Scandals Going Downhill

When I was growing up, scandals at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue were the stuff of Cinemax movies. Wronged women on talk shows, old business associates carted off to prison; crimes were seedy and "proof" meant lies on videotape or Presidential DNA left in the worst of places. It's time to acknowledge the truth: Presidential scandals have gotten pretty lame.

Today's uproars are caused by the Deputy Chief of Staff instead of the Commander in Chief. Instead of defiled blue dresses and infamous cigars we have vague private e-mail conversations and cryptic internal memoes from foreign governments. Excuse me for yawning.

I realize people have been dying to take down the wildly unlikeable Karl Rove, but let's consider the extent of this horrendous crime, the much ballyhooed Rove leak (no, it's not "worse than Watergate," Mr. Frank Rich).

1. Diplomat Joseph Wilson writes a damaging editorial revealing that he had taken a trip to Niger to investigate the claim of an attempted Iraqi uranium purchase, had found it completely unconvincing, and had reported these facts to the White House, or more specifically the Office of the Vice President. They knew from his report, he said, that the Iraq uranium purchase claim was false, and yet the Bush Administration used it to bolster their case for war.

1B. As we now know, Mr. Wilson's findings in Niger were absolutely correct. His report, however, did not convince the CIA, and as such, never reached the Vice President.

2. Wilson claims during his subsequent book tour that he was dispatched to Niger by the Office of the Vice President. The administration quickly rebuts this claim.

3. Time magazine Reporter Matthew Cooper, writing a story about Wilson's Niger trip, queries Karl Rove on this point and is informed that Mr. Wilson's trip had not been planned or arranged by the administration, but simply by Wilson's "wife, who apparently works at the CIA."
(OH DEAR GOD, NOOOO!!! I'm moving to Canada!!)

The Bush folks didn't want to look like dopes for ignoring a report ordered up by the VP, so they wanted it known that the Niger trip was actually planned over eggs in the Plame/Wilson house. That Rove would say such a thing in a private e-mail to a reporter he trusted should shock and awe no one. The objective in bringing up the identity of Wilson's wife was to portray the Niger report as the latest volley in a petty CIA-White House squabble.

The real weasel here is Bob Novak, who got his hands on the same information as Cooper and ran a story dropping that Wilson's "wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

Novak achieved his point of refuting Wilson's "Cheney-sent-me-to-Africa" claim, but committed a cardinal sin in exposing a clandestine intelligence operative. The greatest question in this whole debacle is why two other reporters who followed his story were ordered to jail while he sits back in his chair and smiles. Why isn't anyone calling for his job?

*Updates*
Today's Washington Post editorial cuts this "scandal" down to size more clearly and succinctly than I did above. It's a very helpful read (July 15).

John Tierney also helps set the record straight, dubbing this flacid scandal "Nadagate" (July 16).

It has now been reported that Rove learned Plame's identity from Novak (July 15).