Can we Please Stop Calling it a "Leak"?

Washington liberals and the White House Press Corps, allies in promoting liberal causes, continue to be aflame in their fervent attack on Karl Rove. They've concocted a compelling scandal meme that goes something like this.

Joe Wilson, conscientious public servant, wrote a whistle-blowing op-ed piece in the New York Times claiming that the Bush Administration was lying about a claim that Sadaam Hussein was trying to buy nuclear material in Africa. Wilson had gone to Africa and debunked the claim and was bring it to America's attention as a patriotic duty. The White House goon squad, led by Karl Rove and company, went on the attack to discredit Wilson with the press. As part of this viscious partisan attack on Wilson, the goon squad tried to misdirect the press by incorrectly claiming that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, not Dick Cheney, sent Wilson to Africa - thereby intentionally "leaking" and compromising her role as a covert CIA "operative" in a partisan political smear campaign.

The correct response to this politically motivated "leak", according to various leftists, is one or all of the following:

- indictment of Rove for treason
- conviction
- execution
- removal of Rove's security clearance to work in the White House.

That's my summary of the left's case against Rove. I think I've accurately conveyed it.

Here's the major problem with the whole story: there is no "leak".

Why? Because Valerie Plame does not fit the definition of a "covert operative" in the relevant law that was written to protect CIA operatives. What you need to know, and the media is not making clear in it's reporting, is that not everyone at the CIA is covered by the leak law. The definition of an "operative" is clearly spelled out in the language of the law. You have to have been posted overseas, in a covert role that the Agency is making affirmative efforts to protect, within the last 5 years.

That's important, because Valerie Plame does not meet that definition.

Was she a CIA employee? Yes. Was she a covert operative? No. She had been posted overseas years ago, but had been manning a desk in Washington for longer than the law covers. Therefore, to reveal that she works at the CIA is not a "leak". Let's quit calling it that. There is no crime here.

The remainder of the scandal meme falls apart as well.

Was Karl Rove calling around to reporters to smear Wilson? No, the reporter called him about a different story. At the end of the call, Matt Cooper asked a "oh, by the way" question. He asked if it was true that Dick Cheney sent Joe Wilson on the Africa investigation. (That was a relevant question becuase everyone in Washington was asking why Cheney would have sent Wilson, a partisan Democratic hack, on a sensitive investigation.) Rove replied that the story was incorrect and that Wilson's wife, who works at the agency arranged for the trip. That's a scandal? A scandal deserving of the label of treason that the leftists have applied? Give me a break.

Was Wilson a patriotic whistle blower? No, he was a hack Democratic operative who went on to work in the Kerry campaign. His investigation, conducted by talking to people at a hotel swimming pool, was a sham. He never filed a written report. He never was paid for a report. In short, he was an attack dog whose story was discredited by a bipartisan Senate report on the matter.

This is a story that has been completely distorted by a press corps hostile to President Bush and by partisan Democrat opponents of the President. Simple as that.

We can kill this story by using truthful words, starting with no longer calling it a "leak".