Who Cares What Booby Thinks?

I see more and more Republicans pushing the following theory to the corporate media: if Bob Woodward's source on the "original" Plame leak is Richard Armitage, then this entire affair will be proven to be completely benign.

Which, of course, is complete crap.

Whether or not Booby heard it before Libby, the fact remains that Libby and Rove were calling reporters and selling the following story: Wilson's wife got him the Nigeria job; and she was able to because she was a covert agent with the CIA.

The fact that Woodward shrugged off that leak as unimportant doesn't make a damn bit of difference. Woodward hasn't been a factor in investigative journalism in decades; he's too busy writing crap like the barely concealed love note to Bush, Plan of Attack.

Hell, I agree that Armitage had no reason to smear the Wilsons. Neocons are going to have to do better if they want to whitewash this mess. Whatever Booby heard in the months before, we know that the White House conducted a smear campaign to try and crush Wilson for daring to question the Big Lie that justified the war.

It may be that smear was not designed to threaten the safety of Plame-Wilson, but it did; and those involved need to be brought to justice.

Sources of Confusion - Newsweek

"If Armitage was the original leaker, that undercuts the argument that outing Plame was a plot by the hard-liners in the veep's office to 'out' Plame. Armitage was, if anything, a foe of the neocons who did not want to go to war in Iraq. He had no motive to discredit Wilson."