Eric Alterman: Think Again: What About Bob? (Novak)

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http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/03/think_again_libby.html

Think Again: What About Bob?

By Eric Alterman

March 8, 2007

There is plenty to be said about the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and the entire tawdry saga leading up to it. And we will surely be hearing more about it in the coming weeks than most of us can synthesize. (My file on the trial alone is over a thousand pages and I haven’t even been paying that careful attention.)

But today I want to make sure that the issue of Robert Novak’s behavior in identifying Valerie Plame’s identity in his column continues to receive the attention I believe it deserves. I do so not because I care about Novak per se. I don’t. Rather, Novak’s power and prestige derives from the fact that, despite his many journalistic and ethical transgressions, he remains protected inside the bosom of the Washington insider establishment. Given his behavior in this matter, this is indeed cause for scandal, whether Libby had been found guilty or not.

Remember that the Libby story began when Novak—alone among at least six professional journalists approached by Bush officials—proved willing to reveal the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. (Wil­son, a former diplomat, had investigated, and found wanting, administration claims that the African nation of Niger had sold uranium to Iraq, thereby undermining the administration’s case for war.)

Recall also that it was George W. Bush’s father who, speaking at CIA headquarters in 1999, said, “I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.”<1> This view is consistent with that articulated by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who told reporters, “Leaks put people’s lives at risk. And I think that the people in any branch of government have an obligation to manage their mouths in a way that does not put people’s lives at risk. Folks that leak and put people’s lives at risk ought to be in jail.”

Bush Sr. and Mr. Rumsfeld might get his wish with Libby—if Bush Jr. doesn’t pardon him—but in the case of the Novak feed, the reporter was handed the information by the president’s employees. As Novak would explain, “I didn’t dig it out , it was given to me ... They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.”

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