Few things are as pervasive or annoying as the proverbial Watergate comparisons that accompany every presidential scandal. Remember Lewinskygate? Travelgate? It's as if "gate" were the Latin root for scandal, not just the name of a hotel that happened to be the piece of rope Tricky Dick hung himself with.
But the developing story of Bush officials leaking the name of a CIA operative as an act of revenge recalls the Nixon days in more than name alone. The crown jewel of Nixon's undoing was, of course, the Republican orchestrated break-in to Democratic campaign headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. But the break-in was far from the only seedy thing going on. The investigation revealed a pattern of abuse-of-power. Nixon and his cronies regularly ordered surveillance and generally made trouble for anyone they considered a political enemy. In fact, the articles of impeachment make more mention of Nixon's use of White House power to bully than the break-in itself.
What does this have to do with George W. Bush? Quite a damn bit, actually. Administration officials may not be accused of anything so obviously criminal as the Watergate break-in, but the intent is the same. Bush and friends are clearly using their power to threaten anyone who gets in their way. Revealing the identity of an undercover agent because her husband (correctly) told the world you were full of shit about WMDs is absolutely despicable. And that's what the Bush people have done. They put an American agent in danger to protect their ability to send us to war over a lie. Call me a moral relativist if you will, but I find that more deplorable than schtoinking an intern in the Oval Office.
The White House is already fortifying its position of plausible deniability, and it's exactly the type of spineless leadership you'd expect from this President. The question of who knew and who authorized this leak of information is going to be forced as low down the food chain as possible. But it strains common sense to believe that the man known as "Bush's Brain" would have orchestrated this without the W. knowing what was going on.
And even if Bush didn't know, he's still on the hook - just like he's on the hook for the Iraq war. Harry Truman had that great slogan for leadership - Presidential or otherwise. "The buck stops here." All it really means is when you're the boss, you take responsibility for the good and the bad. This President made a case for war based on false information, then tried to excuse himself by saying he was only presenting what was given to him by intelligence officials. Now he's in the process of laying the blame for the CIA agent leak on his underlings. It doesn't work that way, Chief.
The Talking Heads (and by all accounts the Special Prosecutor) seem to be debating whether or not a crime was committed with this leak, and if so who is guilty. That seems like a moot point. What's clear is that our top executives are at best incompetent, and at worst using their power to push around those with a different point of view, often known as the truth.
For a great primer on the whole Karl Rove/CIA agent leak story, check out this article in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
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