Smoldering Plame

Now that the news is out that it was Richard Armitage that leaked Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak, even papers that did a pretty good job of hustling the story when it pointed Bushward are admitting the truth, but wanting to drop the tale like a fried pickle at the Minnesota state fair.

WaPo's editorial today backpeddles from early anti-Bush coverage of the story and calls the disclosure "not so surprising." What's not so surprising is how much bigger the story was when reporters could rove and scoot through various story angles accentuating false reasons for war and White House manipulations.

In the harsh light of reality, WaPo points out:

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue. The partisan clamor that followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been avoided had Mr. Armitage's identity been known three years ago.

But it doesn't ask the obvious questions: Will Wilson be prosecuted for allowing this sham to go forward? Will Novak be grilled? Will Armitage get a well-deserved firing?

Not all have given up on the story, though. WaPo tosses off a line that Rove and Libby were hardly blameless -- tired stuff, all of it -- and the utterly leftist Media Matters rushes in to remind its wavering readers:

Numerous media figures have asserted that a recent report purportedly identifying former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as Robert Novak's original source for Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative prove that Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were not involved in the leak of her identity. However, Armitage's role as Novak's first source is not inconsistent with Rove's and Libby's involvements in the leak -- both were original sources of the information for two other reporters.

As the head of the pin gets smaller and smaller, the dark angels dance more fervidly. Not dancing was Tucker Carlson on MSNBC:

"Why have we made such a big deal out of such a minor story from day one? [It's because] the lunatic, paranoid, conspiracy-theory-ridden left has made [the leak] into example A of the Bush administration's evil deeds. This story, they say, is a metaphor, this is an example of the Bush administration crushing someone."

And today, the story has become a metaphor for Bush Derangement Syndrome and the media's herd mentality, rushing and crushing all in its way to a story that suits its purpose -- whether its the leftist politics behind the Plame affair, or the shameless quest for circulation in the endless JonBenet story.

hat-tip: memeorandum
Related Tags: MSM, Media bias, Plame, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Armitage