Plamegate Officially Over

Christopher Hitchens (a.k.a. The World's Smartest Person) has what we expect and hope will be the last word on Plamegate. With the revelation that Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's assistant at the State Department, told Robert Novak--at Novak's instigation--that Valerie Plame recommended her unemployed husband Joe Wilson for the temp job of investigating the Iraqi-Niger yellowcake connection.

For those who have even less interest in this non-scandal's whimpering end than SWNID, we offer some explanations and observations from Hitchens's thick-with-allusions article:

• Bush opponents have widely alleged--no, accused--that Bush administration officials, especially Evil Genius Karl Rove, deliberately "outed" Plame to punish Wilson for his report that was critical of administration actions. Armitage, however, was an opponent of the Iraq invasion. So much for the cruel, ruthless conspiracy hypothesis.
• Armitage is not the only opponent of the invasion in executive-branch offices. Much of the State Department and the CIA was against it and remains so. If there is a campaign to discredit, it has been folks in Foggy Bottom and Langley who have sourced articles blaming the administration for poor planning and execution. Next time you read that some high percentage of government officials think the invasion was a bad idea, remember who is being counted.
• Hitchens therefore notes "the extraordinary venom of the interdepartmental rivalry that has characterized this administration." Yet Bush has made no attempt to punish or purge within the State Department or the CIA. On the contrary, he has remained patient and loyal to these bureaucracies, probably unduly so.
• Ironically enough, all the unreconstructed romantic warriors of the Vietnam and Watergate eras who have focused their radical energy on the administration's alleged misdeeds in "outing" Plame have in fact been doing the work of Washington diplomats and intelligence officers who are trying to keep their bureaucratic control of foreign and military policy. Again, this is how pathetic the radical left in this country has become.
• Reporters continued to write about a Bush administration scorched-earth campaign to discredit critics of the administration, citing Plame as an example, even though many knew that the whole matter was initiated by reporter Robert Novak, a critic of the invasion, and sourced by Armitage, also a critic. Meanwhile, the members of the California State Legislature are imploring Congress to pass a federal bill protecting reporters from having to reveal their sources. With such a stellar record of honesty in this matter, who could object to giving reporters the same privileges accorded lawyers, medical doctors, mental health counselors and clergy?