I don’t usually agree with Bob Novak, but I think he’s definitely on the right track here.
Newspaper columnist Robert Novak is still not naming his source in the Valerie Plame affair, but he says he is pretty sure the name is no mystery to President Bush.
“I’m confident the president knows who the source is,” Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh on Tuesday. “I’d be amazed if he doesn’t.”
“So I say, ‘Don’t bug me. Don’t bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.’ “
I think that’s more than half right. I’m inclined to believe we should still bug Novak and Woodward about their roles in this fiasco (and their bizarre journalistic standards), but Novak’s point about Bush is nevertheless spot-on.
Bush was quietly asking questions about his aides’ role in the leaks from the very beginning. But in the subsequent two years, he’s never taken the scandal seriously, never fired those responsible (as he had promised to do), and never explained to the nation how and why this happened.
As the story faded from the front page, questions for the White House to dodge faded too. On this Novak’s right; if anyone should be bothered with questions about this national security scandal, it’s the president.