Cheney admits involvement in Plame leak

Outside of Bush's speeches that are so repetitive they could be aired by playing one endless loop video tape, can anyone remember the last time we got news about the White House that wasn't delivered by an unnamed source? Nobody in the entire city of DC except Joe Wilson has the balls to come out and attach their name to the information the public has the right to know. Of course we know how that worked out for Joe and his wife.

Following this stratagem of dissemination by insider leaks, Judd at Think Progress tells us that yesterday the NYT revealed Cheney is directly involved in Traitorgate.

On July 12, 2003, four days after his initial conversation with Ms. Miller, Mr. Libby consulted with Mr. Cheney about how to handle inquiries from journalists about the vice president's role in sending Mr. Wilson to Africa in early 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq was trying acquire nuclear material there for its weapons program, the person said.

As Judd points out this is a thinly disguised attempt by the White House to control the message. They couch Cheney's involvement in the most innocuous way possible. As if somebody wasn't briefing him daily on "the Wilson problem." Ridiculous. Cheney is in up to his surgically repaired knees in this mess and so is Bush.

If they really weren't keeping track of the scandal, then Plame would constitute the biggest dereliction of duty in the history of the office of the presidency. How do you run a country if you can't keep track of your own top lieutenant's job performance?