Movin' On

When asked today whether he was "disappointed" by the fact that members of his administration were involved in exposing the identity of an undercover CIA agent, President Bush made it clear that he does not even feel that middling level of emotion over the sordid affair.



To recap:

The identity of a covert CIA agent is leaked to the press;

Bush vows to fire anyone in his administration involved in this leak;

Several high government officials turn out to have been involved in the leak, which was perpetrated for the purposes of petty political revenge, and to obscure the emerging truth that the administration presented a fraudulent case for war;

Bush fires no one;

One high government official is brought to trial for obstructing a federal investigation into the leak;

This high government official is convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice;

This former high government official, now a convicted felon, receives a penalty well within the federal sentencing guidelines for the crime of which he was convicted;

Bush commutes the prison sentence of this convicted felon, leaving intact his ability to invoke his right against self-incrimination in case he is ever called to testify before congress;

Bush is asked if he is even disappointed by the involvement of senior administration officials in the leaking of a covert CIA agent's identity;

Bush cannot manage an expression of anything but irritation at having had to waste time on the matter in the first place, and announces that he and his people are "gonna move on."

And by the way, despite Bush's assurances at the time that he was aggressively trying to find out if anybody in his administration had leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, he just admitted that he never even asked anyone about it. Think about that for a moment.

There are only two reasons that Bush would not have even asked members of his staff about the leak: he genuinely did not care that the identity of an undercover agent had been blown; or he already knew who had perpetrated this high crime against American people and didn't need to ask.