Federal crime or medal worthy?

So President Bush's right-hand man Karl Rove is under fire for allegedly having leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame. If he did it, it's a federal crime.

But since the agent was the wife of a former ambassador who's been highly critical of the president's Iraq aggression named Joseph Wilson, apparently the leaking is just fine and dandy according to some people.

John Gibson reportedly said that if Rove leaked Plame's name, he deserves a medal. You might remember Gibson as being the far-right Fox News [sic] anchor who said that terrorist bombings in Paris 'would've been a treat.'

New York Republican Rep. Peter King agreed: 'I think Karl Rove should get a medal' and added 'Listen, maybe Karl Rove was not perfect. We live in an imperfect world. And I give him credit for having the guts.'

Another GOP NY congressman, not surprisingly blamed it all on the far left

'The extreme left is once again attempting to define the modern Democratic Party by rabid partisan attacks, character assassination and endless negativity,' sniffed Rep. Tom Reynolds, head of the Republican Congressional Committee.

This was after his colleague Rep. King called Joe Wilson as 'shameless self-promoter,' ' 'a liar' and repeatedly referred to his 'lies.'

The current chairman of the Republican Natonal Committee [RNC] Ken Melhmann adopted the same tactic, whining about "far-left, MoveOn wing" of the Democratic Party.

Yet in 2003, then-RNC chief Ed Gillespie said of the leaking of Plame's name, 'I think if the allegation is true, to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative -- it's abhorrent, and it should be a crime, and it is a crime.'

When asked, 'It'd be worse than Watergate, wouldn't it?, the then-GOP chief responded, 'It's -- Yeah, I suppose in terms of the real world implications of it. It's not just politics.'

Earlier this year, Sandy Berger, former Naitonal Security Advisor to Pres. Clinton, plead guilty to taking three copies of a classified document from the National Archives and cut[ting] them up with scissors. Conservatives were outraged at the possibility that he might not go to jail.

He didn't endanger anyone's life.

And New York Times reporter Judith Miller is in jail despite not having published Plame's name while conservative commentator Robert Novak, who did publish the name, gets away scot-free. To say nothing of the person who leaked Plame's name to both of them.

While Bush continues to propagate the discredited myth that Saddam Hussein had close ties to al-Qaeda, he can't be bothered to comment on accusations that his closest advisor broke federal law.



Update: Rove claims he learned of Plame's identity from conservative columnist Bob Novak. Which further begs the question why Novak, who actually published a column revealing Plame's identity (unlike the New York Times' Miller), has not been indicted?