IT'S NO DEFENSE TO SAY THEY DIDN'T KNOW -- THEY SHOULD HAVE

This case -- pre-war intelligence, Valerie Plame, etc. -- is, if not evidence of a criminal conspiracy to delude Americans into supporting a thinly justified war of choice, then is certainly further proof of an administration that is, at bottom, incompetent. If Libby didn't know that Plame was covert, he should have. Once learning that a CIA employee is involved in ANYTHING, shouldn't a national security-conscious administration take pains to determine that agent's status before disclosing anything even remotely concerning her?

And relative to the Niger (now acknowledged as clumsily faked) documents, shouldn't that same administration have questioned and verified their authenticity at least as much as they did those that Dan Rather revealed on his infamous 60 Minutes report?

The obvious answer is "Yes!" So why does the MSM let the "war party" GOP get away with it?

Tags: Plame, CIA, national security, Niger documents