For Those Who Care

To the surprise of no one, Richard Armitage is now being identified as the original Valerie Plame “leaker.” Armitage’s mention of her to Robert Novak is described as inadvertent, unintentional or otherwise innocent. So far, no one is demanding that he be frog-marched out of the State Department, or wherever he now resides.

There’s lots of discussion of this development by Byron York and Cliff May at The Corner; just scroll. Tom Maguire and his commenters are also very interested in the details.

I’m not. I gather that special prosecutor Fitzgerald knew back in 2003 that Armitage was Novak’s original source. At this point, the whole investigation is something of a mystery. What Fitzgerald thought he was doing, and why he was doing it, are matters known only to him.

But, as I said, I don’t care. No doubt some of the current questions will be answered in due course, but the bottom line, in my view, is that this sorry episode shows how unbalanced and even irrational our whole media culture has become. That Washington could be roiled for months by such a silly non-story speaks volumes about the lack of seriousness that infects many of our journalists, pundits and politicians.

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