On that Plame

Atrios and John Marshall are already all over this, and Tom's chimed in, but it bears mentioning.

This is the original article written by David Corn:

At CIA Director George J. Tenet's request, the Justice Department is looking into an allegation that administration officials leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer to a journalist, government sources said yesterday.
The operative's identity was published in July after her husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly challenged President Bush's claim that Iraq had tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium ore from Africa for possible use in nuclear weapons. Bush later backed away from the claim.

The intentional disclosure of a covert operative's identity is a violation of federal law.

The officer's name was disclosed on July 14 in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak, who said his sources were two senior administration officials.

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Wilson, while refusing to confirm his wife's occupation, has suggested publicly that he believes Bush's senior adviser, Karl C. Rove, broke her cover. Wilson said Aug. 21 at a public forum in suburban Seattle that it is of keen interest to him "to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

For anyone wondering how far the Administration is willing to go with its Machiavellian power grab, look no further. It looks like they've compromised national security and who knows how many CIA investigations just so they could silence their critics.

There's a DOJ investigation right now. We'll see how far it goes, especially since the Administration seems not very willing to help it along. But the thought of seeing Karl Rove escorted out of the White House in handcuffs is pretty nice.