Since Valerie Plame  has decided to attempt a civil suit against the Vice President we have liberals once again going nuts over the Plame affair. Ms. Plame , a desk bound functionary at the time of the alleged leak, was far from a covert agent. Even if she were covered by the statute in question the originator of the story (Robert Novak) has said it was neither Cheney nor Rove that gave him Ms. Plames name, therefore no crime was committed. Mr. Novak has even publicly stated that he got Ms. Plame's name from Mr. Wilson's (Plames husband) entry in Who's Who. Giving the name of a non-covert employee of the CIA is not a crime. Mr. Novak has also said that there was no effort to smear Ambassador Wilson.
 
What is a crime , in my opinion, is that Ms. Plame got her husband the job to go to Niger. As a government employee Ms. Plame violated ethics statutes by assisting her husband to obtain a US Government position. Mr. Wilson should also be investigated for falsifying government documents since he came back from Niger with information that did not concur with reports by British Intelligence about Iraq's attempt to buy yellow-cake uranium The left also overlooks the findings of such works as the Butler Report which go against what Mr. Wilson said about Iraq's interest in Niger. Of course part of the problem was that Amb. Wilson had no experience in this field and only obtained his appointment through the machinations of his wife.
 
If there were an injured party here it would be the senior leadership at the White House, Amb. Wilson's report and the ensuing "leak scandal" were nothing but premeditated attempts to defame the Bush administration.