Richard Armitage source of leak of covert CIA officer

So, there you have it. After years of speculation on whether it was Karl Rove or Scooter Libby who leaked Valerie Plame's name and position to Robert Novak, Matt Cooper, and Bob Woodward, it comes out in a new book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," by David Corn and Michael Isikoff, that Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's second in charge at the State Department was the source of the leak.

You can be sure that the Bush administration is jumping for joy this morning, knowing that Karl Rove is really out of the woods today. Scooter Libby may also be off the hook, though he was charged with lying and obstruction of justice. It's actually kind of sad that Libby is about to be nailed for something quite apart from the nature of the issue: Somebody outed a covert CIA officer.

But I guess a lesson to be learned here is to refrain from lying to the federal government.

Even though the federal government constantly and consistently lies to us.

Hypocrisy has always run deep and wide in Washington D.C. This administration is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last; however, it might be the best. So Bush can go down in history as having been the best president at something.

But I have gotten off the point. Armitage, a Vietnam veteran, told reporters about Plame's employment with the CIA. It's unknown (I guess I will have to read the book) whether a) he meant any harm and b) he knew she was a covert agent.

But does it matter? It does in the judicial sense, of course, but does it really matter? I think it's clear (at least to me) that people who work for the CIA probably ought not to be known as working for the agency, don't you think?

Nevertheless, I think Armitage ought to be investigated again (he was the first time by Patrick Fitzgerald (leading one to wonder how good Fitzgerald really is), and if found to have leaked out anything he shouldn't have, he should go to prison.

It's that simple.