Shooting the Messengers

Today the Bush administration, thinly disguised as the Department of Justice, announced it was launching an investigation into who leaked the story of the secret, illegal wiretaps on American soil. Would they would have reacted so swiftly to the outing of Valerie Plame but then, that one was going in their favor. My bet is the first move will be to jail the reporters, a favorite of budding totalitarian states. They'll then hold the reporters until they reveal the name of whatever hero revealed to us that Bush was just too damned lazy to get a warrant from that rubber-stamp court called FISE.

The root of the tactic is misdirection. The Republicans know if they can get a Judith Miller-style media circus going around the reporters, the deed will fade into the noise. That would do us a disservice: Bush's illegal, unwarranted (pun intended) wiretaps are a gross violation of civil rights and are impeachable, not that we'd get Senate Republicans to do the right thing nor that we'd want President Cheney. That is what needs investigating. Whoever leaked the story did so with the conviction that his or her leaking was doing us, the American people, a service. I'm familiar with regulations surrounding classified information - I've held a security clearance. It takes tremendous courage to violate the rules willfully, knowing that it's a criminal act. That individual, particularly in today's environment, knows he or she will most likely be jailed. He or she is a hero.

But it won't play that way. The Administration will paint the leaker as a traitor, threatening national security in leaking what the terrorists, if they have half a brain, already know. The only possible compromise of national security is a justified drop in the Shrub's poll numbers when those not convicted Bushites (remember Nixon, when forced out of office, still had a 25% approval rating) realize that Bush would gladly be King George. Instead of investigating the deed, though, King George will continue to spy on you and me and whenever he doesn't like the message, he will gladly shoot the messenger.