Plame affair reeks of malfeasance

Important and little appreciated facts about the indictment of Lewis Libby:

- Libby almost certainly did not act on this without the knowledge and involvement of his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney. In support of this, we know that they talked about Joseph Wilson and his wife, and Cheney gave Libby the wife's name: Valerie Plame.

- Shortly after columnist Robert Novak exposed Plame as Wilson's wife who worked in the CIA, President Bush's press secretary told reporters that he had asked Karl Rove whether he had discussed Plame with reporters, and said Rove had no such contact. We now know that he did. Either Rove or the press secretary lied. Yet, in the face of this, the president has not taken any disciplinary action against Rove. This failure implies that the president also knew the cover-up was on.

- If two reporters had not refused to testify early in the investigation, the prosecutor said that his work would have been completed a year sooner, and all that we now know would have been known before the 2004 election. If the scandal was exposed then, it is unlikely that Bush would have been re-elected. In a very real sense, the cover-up succeeded and saved him from defeat.

Given these facts, it is easy to see why Bush and Cheney, and their knee-jerk defenders, are belittling - even ignoring - Libby's and Rove's malfeasance, and why we see no move to clean house. That broom would likely sweep them out as well. Where is Congress when we need them, to get to the bottom of this serious matter?

Victor Reilly
Aiken, S.C.