Gate Gate

There needs to be a cooling off period in which elected officials can enact laws following tragic or seminal events. In almost every instance, overreaction by those we elect to run our lives has ruled the day. During times of turmoil, Congress has not been the deliberative body as designed by our Fore Fathers.

Witness the law that created the independent prosecutor that sprang out of Watergate. That’s one ineffective piece of legislation.

If you’re over 30, you’ve been through a number of gates: Pardongate, Billygate, Iran/Contragate (twice), Travelgate, Whitewatergate, Monicagate, Electiongate, and now Leakgate. The Canadian Mounties, who always got their man, would find little to be proud of with the investigations that followed. A lot of investigating and very little getting of anyone. At least for the underlying crimes, that is.

Today Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald handed down a five-count indictment for lying to investigators on I. “Scooter” Libby, the Vice President’s chief of staff. First off, anyone named Scooter should be indicted for bad taste in nicknames. But is that what Fitzgerald was asked to do, catch someone for lying to the Feds? I thought the greater national interest was finding out who supposedly leaked the name of a poorly-covered undercover CIA agent. On that score, we don’t know. The only people who know are the reporters who wrote about it and they’re too busy lecturing on journalistic integrity to take the time to fill us in.

The history on this is bizarre. Robert Novak writes a column in which he unknowingly identifies the name of former NOC (non-official cover), Valerie Plame. Novak, apparently, was told her identity by someone who he says was not high up in the White House – which leaves all of those under fire out of the picture. Now Novak knows who told him about Plame, but as far as we know, he has never told the Grand Jury who outed her. Presumably the same is true for the other reporters who carried the story, including New York Times reporter Judith Miller who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to tell the Grand Jury what she knew and when she stopped knowing it. It's difficult to believe she stayed there to protect Libby.

One thing is certain, Novak and the others didn’t have to go far to learn about Valerie Plame and her secret agent past. Her husband, Joe Wilson, was so proud of her that he wrote in his official State Department biography, years before the outing, that he was married to the former “Valerie Plame who works at the Central Intelligence Agency.” Even French intelligence could have connected the dots on that one.

I don’t know if Scooter Libby or others are guilty of anything, or if this will hurt the president, or even if it will hurt the war effort. I do know a lot of sound and fury was wasted to find out nothing that we wanted to know. While it’s certainly a rough day for the Libby family, it should be a day of shame for the reporters who have eagerly covered a story that only they know the truth about. And they’re not telling.