Ashcroft Recuses Himself from Leak Investigation

Hmm, I sense some frog marching in Karl Rove's future.

This is interesting. 3 things:

(1) Credit to Ashcroft for doing the right thing. It is a potent and disturbing sign of how completely anemic and stupid the national media is that they have utterly ignored this - a potentially REAL scandal - and put no pressure whatsoever on the Administration to do anything. The media let this issue evaporate into non-existence, and Ashcroft was under no pressure to do anything. So he deserves credit for doing what he should have done.

(2) The fact that Ashcroft recused himself does seem to suggest that the evidence is incriminating someone with whom Ashcroft had some prior ties, such as Rove, who worked on one of Ashcroft's campaign (although a cynical view is that the investigaiton was going to conclude either that nobody did anything wrong or that they can't find out who did it, and Ashcroft didn't want to have it appear that he was the one who casued that conclusion).

(3) The U.S. Attorney overseeing this investigation now has a genuine reputation in all circles for being non-partisan and a serious and tough prosecutor. If it is possible to find out who leaked this information, he will find out.

This could be a real campaign issue. Bush should have done a lot more to find out himself who did the leaking - something he probably could have accomplished without a lot of effort. It it turns out to be Rove or someone in Rove's office, that could have serious repurcussions for this Administration.

Meanwhile Valerie's laughing at all of you in Vanity Fair (which came out BEFORE this week's announcement...)

* yawn *

Howard Dean had this to say: ""While I am encouraged by John Ashcroft's decision to recuse himself from the investigation into whether senior Bush administration officials broke the law by disclosing the identity of Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife, a CIA operative, it is too little too late.

"It is critical that the investigation into this breach of national security be carried out free from political influence, and currently, Justice Department attorneys are still answering to a Bush political appointee.

"Today I renew the call I made three months ago: Whether it is a special counsel or the Justice Department Inspector General, the American people deserve a person whose honesty, objectivity, and fairness are guaranteed to investigate this serious matter."

There's an old saying that you should never let a fox guard the henhouse.

Especially if it's Fox News!!

I was referring more to the Rove-Ashcroft matrix

>(3) The U.S. Attorney overseeing this investigation now has a

>genuine reputation in all circles for being non-partisan and a

>serious and tough prosecutor. If it is possible to find out

>who leaked this information, he will find out.

I agree Doug. However, I hope he can do it as fast as possible as this could be another distraction on a political landscape where there are enough distractions as it is.

"Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, 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." -- George Herbert Walker Bush, 1999