Novak's Shame

Robert Novak, the journo who leaked Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent, has a new column out on the issue.

Novak's latest piece ignores all the latest information in favour of an over-simplified "try to see it my way" defence:

So, what was "wrong" with my column as Harlow claimed? There was nothing incorrect...

Bullshit. What was incorrect was the column's entire raison d'etre. What exactly was the value in informing the public that Wilson's wife had suggested him for the trip to Niger? Why did the public need to know that? Even if she had "authorized" the trip, as others (if not Novak) have suggested, what would that matter? The essential fact (continually obscured in these muddied waters of debate) is that Cheney had already demanded the CIA follow up this discredited line of information. Whether it was Wilson's wife or somebody else who put his name forward is immaterial. Wilson was by all acounts the best man for the job, and he did his job properly: he reported back that the information was false.

There was only ever one reason for Novak to write that column, and that was political payback. Novak implies that Harlow would have been happy with him using the term "Wilson's wife" but not the name "Valerie Plame". That is simply disengenuous. Harlow warned Novak - as he himself admits - that exposure of Plame's name would cause 'difficulties.' And Novak himself writes:

Once it was determined that Wilson's wife suggested the mission, she could be identified as "Valerie Plame" by reading her husband's entry in "Who's Who in America."

So Novak knew, by his own reasoning, that it was just as bad to write "Novak's wife" as to write "Valerie Plame". Yet his defence is based on the argument that he never revealed her name! Preposterous.

Novak is playing a game of pure semantics, when much larger issues are at stake. The real story here is that Bush went ahead and used the Niger yellowcake information anyway, despite Wilson's warning. The real story has nothing to do with Wilson, not really. The real story is that Bush's team fixed the facts around the intelligence. And people died, and are still dying today, because of that, while fools like Novak fumble for words to defend their evil deeds.

UPDATE: Here's Bush's latest comment on the scandal, from a round-table with Texas newspaper editors:

Karl's got my complete confidence. He's a valuable member of my team... Why don't you wait and see what the true facts are?

Well, George, we already waited two years. You promised to get to the bottom of this, just as you promised to get rid of anyone involved. Thing is, you have now lied so many times that people just don't believe you any more.