Michael is right, the Valerie Plame thing needs to be discussed. It's a bit of a pickle for the Bush administration. The thing to be considered is the stickiness factor. Will this stick to the Teflon Prez, or will it be another in a long string of things that his administration stonewalls or next-to-stonewalls and gets away with? I heard some other politico-blogger talking about how Karl Rove is the one person the Bush admin can't afford to lose. If it were anyone else, he or she would probably just be sacrificed for the good of the administration. Bush could be shocked and disappointed on TV and reiterate his view that the most important thing is national security and that this was a reprehensible thing to do and the person(s) involved will be dealt with. Perp walk and everything. But not Rove. Rove IS the Bush administration. If Rove goes down, the executive branch is in a tight, tight spot. Hence, they're fighting, both by ignoring as much as possible, and by "fully cooperating" with a BS investigation from Ashcroft. Ashcroft investigating Bush. Isn't that Siegel investigating Lansky? Predictable metaphor aside, experience leads me to believe that even if this turns into Bush's biggest scandal, NOTHING WILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO BUSH. He will emerge unscathed, smirking. Part of me hates to be such a fucking pessimist, but you come a different conclusion that's based on what we've witnessed in the last three years. This scandal also has the disadvantage of being too complicated for the average person to follow or remember long enough to be outraged. The only way Joe Grabasandwich will get pissed off about this enough to support something cool like impeachment or censure will be if something tangible and terrible happens to a CIA operative overseas. If we get Daniel Pearl-type footage from Al Jazeera, with something horrific happening, and the definitive knowledge that the horrific thing happened because of the Valerie Plame leak, THEN people might get mad. Till then, till then... Which sucks, because I would prefer that this be enough to outrage people. I hope something horrific DOESN'T happen. But I'm afraid that's what it would take.