Woodward lies down with the dogs

How far the mighty have fallen. In case you were wondering what happened to the ideals of the 60s, they were mostly sold out by their champions, as sadly evidenced by Bob Woodward's admission that he was told the identity of Valerie Plame by a White House source a month before Novak outed her in his column.

Now this isn't exactly a shock. It's been clear Woodward had become a White House embed since his first book on the administration, but it does make his past attempts to minimize the importance of the Fitzgerald investigation all the more nauseating. Not to mention it casts a new light on his defense of fellow White House steno, Judy Miller, since it's now revealed he also kept this knowledge of governmental malfeasance from his editors at the Washington Post.

The Bush bloggers have jumped on this development with glee, seeing in it some vindication of Scooter Libby. You can't blame them for trying, but their premise fits the material facts of this case about as well as Cinderella's ugly stepsister's feet fit into her glass slipper. I find it more an new indictment of the entire White House press choir and one has to wonder how many more so-called journalists are harboring White House secrets and just haven't been ratted out yet. It would certainly explain why the mainstream press continues to mock and/or marginalize its importance.

Furthermore, I find the mystery official having "voluntarily" disclosed this information to Fitzgerald a bit suspicious. I mean, really. Who volunteers to confess a crime unless they suspect they're about to be implicated in it? I'm thinking my prediction on a St. Patrick Fitzgerald Day miracle just got some new steam. This latest wrinkle suggests to me that Fitzgerald is still actively pursing a wider investigation and merely closed out the grand jury to shut up the noise machine on both sides of the fence.