Last week, the talking heads were pushing the idea the Plamegate was the "just" the criminalization of politics. That, of course, justified the underlying crimes. John wrote a brilliant and scathing post last week that completely destroyed that line of thinking.
This week, the NY Times has a major piece on Plamegate as the criminalization of the Iraq War:
The legal and political stakes are of the highest order, but the investigation into the disclosure of a covert C.I.A. officer's identity is also just one skirmish in the continuing battle over the Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq.The concept of the criminalization of Iraq was echoed this morning on the Today Show by both David Gergen and Chris Matthews. Very interesting, now that indictments appear imminent, that they are being viewed as an indictment of the Bush Iraq policy.
That fight has preoccupied the White House for more than three years, repeatedly threatening President Bush's credibility and political standing, and has again put the spotlight on Vice President Dick Cheney, who assumed a critical role in assembling and analyzing the evidence about Iraq's weapons programs.
The dispute over the rationale for the war has led to upheaval in the intelligence agencies, left Democrats divided about how aggressively to break with the White House and exposed deep rifts in the administration and among Republicans.
