What's Love Got to Do with It?

To: Mickey Kaus
Re: Double Super Secret Balkanization

Since Wilson wrote that he was sent by the CIA, what does his wife's job have to do with casting doubt on his report via the 'CIA are Saddam huggers' theory? It was an ad hominem, meant to suggest he was on vacation, not assignment.

Also, 'exculpatory' is the wrong word, if you're talking about the legal case. Rove can't argue that he was justified (legally) in deliberately outing a covert CIA agent in order to discredit her husband, rather than merely exact childish revenge upon him. And if the White House was 'peddl[ing] the identity' of Wilson's wife -- as opposed to sputtering it in apoplexy at the end of a conversation about welfare reform, say -- doesn't that increase the odds that someone knew what they were doing (i.e. that she was covert)?

Also, don't fall for a lawyer's trick. It's not necessary to literally name someone in order to identify them and hence violate the law. It's possible that the WH leaked 'Wilson's wife' and a reporter was first to say 'Valerie Plame'. That's not exculpatory, either.