Arguing the meaning of "is"

Outside Probe of Leaks Is Favored:

"Confronted with little public support for the White House view that the investigation should be handled by the Justice Department, Bush aides began Wednesday to adjust their response to the expanding probe. They reined in earlier, sweeping portrayals of innocence in favor of more technical arguments that it is possible the disclosure was made without knowledge that a covert operative was being exposed and therefore may not have been a crime."

Uh, no. It's a crime. If they "didn't know" they were exposing a covert operative, that's criminal negligence on top of their criminal venality and stupidity. (Nor, as I understand it, would it provide any defense against the existing laws. I don't believe that Poppy's law provides any defense for sheer idiocy.) They're lying, tap-dancing, and proving as evasive as Slick Willie himself. So much for the grown-ups and the "party of personal responsibility."

At least some Republicans get it, though.

"'He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it,' the outspoken [Senator Chuck] Hagel [R-Neb.] said Wednesday night on CNBC's Capital Report."

The White House's response? Slime Wilson.

"'He is someone, given his politics, who is obviously prone to think the worst of this White House,' Gillespie said by telephone."

Yeah, someone who donated a FREAKIN' GRAND to their campaign is going to naturally think the worst of them. Sure.

(/) Roland
Bush/Cheney '04: The last vote you'll ever have to cast.