Inside Politics

Case of disloyalty

“From its very start, the ballyhooed case of who leaked the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak has been drenched in partisan politics and media hypocrisy. The more we learn, however, the more it also reveals about the internal dysfunction of the Bush administration and the lack of loyalty among some of its most senior officials,” the Wall Street Journal says in an editorial.

“The latest news is that the Bush official who first disclosed Ms. Plame’s identity was none other than former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. According to a new book by liberal journalists David Corn and Michael Isikoff, Mr. Armitage was Mr. Novak’s primary source for his now famous column of July14, 2003, that first publicly revealed Ms. Plame’s CIA pedigree,” the newspaper noted.

“In other words, the leaker wasn’t Karl Rove or Scooter Libby or anyone else in the White House who has been accused of running a conspiracy against Ms. Plame as revenge for her husband Joe Wilson’s false accusations against the White House’s case for war with Iraq. So what have the last three years been all about anyway? Political opportunism and internal score-settling, among other things.

“Mr. Armitage, recall, was part of Colin Powell’s team at State and well-known as an internal administration opponent of the ‘neo-cons’ who supported the ouster of Saddam Hussein. The book alleges that Mr. Armitage knew as early as October 2003 that he was Mr. Novak’s prime source, yet he kept quiet about it even as his colleagues in the administration were dragged through years of criminal investigation and media accusations as the possible leaker.”

Case of disloyalty II

“So now we know what we’ve pretty much known all along about the CIA-leak case: The leaker was Richard Armitage,” the editors of National Review write at www.nationalreview.com.

“A new book by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, ‘Hubris: the Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War,’ reports that it was Armitage, the former number-two at the State Department and a confidant of former secretary of state Colin Powell, who told columnist Robert Novak about Valerie Plame — thus setting off the CIA leak ‘scandal’ and a years-long investigation,” the magazine said.

“Today, nearly three years on, we are basically right where we started. There’s a lot of blame to go around. First up is Armitage. There was absolutely nothing illegal about the original leak he committed, but he chose to remain silent while others — principally [Karl] Rove and [Lewis ‘Scooter’] Libby — endured years of accusations in the press. (Armitage’s close friend Colin Powell also deserves a dishonorable mention for keeping quiet after learning of Armitage’s role.)

“The administration’s leftist adversaries in and out of government who have spent years shrieking ‘traitor’ should be ashamed of themselves. Likewise, the New York Times editorial board, which screamed for an investigation until it got bit on the backside in the form of the media subpoenas.”

Losing the middle

“$23,700. That is the household income level at which a white person became more likely to vote for a Republican over a Democrat in congressional races in 2004,” Anne Kim, Adam Solomon and Jim Kessler write in the Democratic Strategist (www.thedemocraticstrategist.org).

“That’s $5,000 above the poverty line for a family of four, less than half the median income of the typical voting household of all races, and an emphatic repudiation of all things Democratic among the white middle class. Obtaining a sustainable Democratic majority in either house will be impossible unless there is a significant change in this economic tipping point,” the writers said.

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