Leaker In Chief

Well, it's clear now that President Bush and Dick Cheney had full working knowledge of the Valerie Plame leak. They authorized the leak. They haven't denied it after Fitzgerald's report, at least as of yet. From the Washington Post:

The White House did not challenge the prosecutor's account of Bush's and Cheney's role in orchestrating the effort to discredit Wilson yesterday. Both Bush and Cheney have been interviewed by Fitzgerald, but the details of what they told him are unknown. Fitzgerald's new account is based on Libby's grand jury testimony that Cheney told him Bush had authorized the declassification and disclosure of some of the information.

What's still unclear is whether or not Scooter Libby was smart enough get that authorization in writing. That would be the smoking gun. I'm guessing he didn't. These guys seem pretty lazy when it comes to due diligence.

I guess the President does have the authority to declassify information, even if it is for something as shady as attacking a critic. That's not the important thing involved here. What's important is that the President on at least eight occasions lied to the American people about his involvement, and trust was the only thing that got him re-elected.

Will his poll numbers take a hit? I don't know, there's gotta be a floor out there somewhere to bottom out at, and I don't think that rock bottom could be much lower than thirty percent.