Plame Case Update

It's starting to look as though the Bush haters have been rope-a-doped once again. Bush and Rove do this to them over and over and the haters never learn. Allegations are made; the White House fails to respond to them; haters scenting blood assume that the allegations are true and go into full-throated denunciation mode; there are calls for impeachment and resignations; a few of the more unbalanced lefties go completely bats and make absurd statements; then, when they are overextended, the facts emerge and are something far less than the haters assumed. They look ridiculous and they (and by association the Democrat Party) lose even more credibility with the American public.

Consider the Valerie Plame/Robert Novak leak investigation. A few days ago Larry O'Donnell, who was once respected but is now becoming a clown, "broke" the story that Karl Rove was the source of the leak. That put the "Move On" loonies into a feeding frenzy. Ted Rall even went so far as to call Rove a traitor. The blogosphere went nuts. Arianna's C-list chums had a field day.

Well, hold on now. Mickey Kaus notes that O'Donnell is beginning to back away from his original accusations.

[H]e's now quietly downgraded Rove from "Matt Cooper's source" and "the source Matt Cooper has been protecting" to "one of the secret sources Matt Cooper has been protecting."

Read it here.

And now there's this from Editor and Publisher:

NEW YORK The Washington Post, declaring Wednesday an "historic" day in the history of the press in America, suggested that perhaps the "leaker" of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIa operative was not a Bush administration official but a reporter (or reporters).

In a Wednesday A3 story, Carol Leonnig writes, "Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around -- that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee."

Oh my! That would be embarrassing, wouldn't it?

Read it here.