A PERFECT D.C. STORM?

There is also something surreal about the whole event. This, after all, is about telephone conversations which one party will almost certainly deny and the other party likely won’t reveal. What are the odds that we will ever find out anything for sure whoever investigates? Even a pissed-off third party in the CIA or White House can’t prove what was said in such telephone conversations. And doesn’t everyone involved in this – including those calling for an independent counsel – know this already? The point, then, is to besmirch what has so far been a relatively scandal-free administration, with little chance of our actually finding out what actually happened and why, and maybe get a resignation or two if you’re lucky. A kind of perfect Washington storm – about something that will never formally become much more than nothing. I could be wrong, of course; and it doesn’t mean the investigation shouldn’t take place. But it does make it all seem a little ritualistic.

AND WHY? Like many others, I’m still baffled by the rationale. Okay, so let’s say it’s meant to intimidate other potential CIA dissidents. How was this information conveyed exactly? I mean: can you imagine what was actually said in the phone call? “Hi, Dana. This is Karl. You know that guy Wilson who gave us such grief over Niger? Maybe you’d be interested to know that his wife’s an undercover CIA agent.” So? Why are you telling me this? What’s that got to do with anything? The only thought that makes any sense to me is if someone in the administration was trying to placate neo-con or conservative reporters or pundits, who were miffed that such a partisan lefty as Wilson was deputed to investigate Saddam’s ties to African uranium in the first place. “Well, Brit, his wife’s an expert in WMDs at the CIA. She knows a lot about the region and the subject and it seemed a good idea at the time.” That’s the only way I can think of such info being slipped into the conversation. Maybe the leaker knew she was undercover; maybe he didn’t. I’d guess the latter, mainly because I find it hard top believe that anyone in this White House would be either so stupid or so petty. In other words, it was a malevolent leak but not a self-consciously criminal one. Look, I don’t know. I’m just trying to make sense of this. Right now, I’m going to stop speculating and wait for an actual new, live, breathing fact before weighing in again.