A Violation of the Public Trust

One more thing came out in the report from iceberg Judy, and that is the following:

My recollection, I told him, was that Mr. Libby wanted to modify our prior understanding that I would attribute information from him to a "senior administration official." When the subject turned to Mr. Wilson, Mr. Libby requested that he be identified only as a "former Hill staffer." I agreed to the new ground rules because I knew that Mr. Libby had once worked on Capitol Hill.

Did Mr. Libby explain this request? Mr. Fitzgerald asked. No, I don't recall, I replied. But I said I assumed Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Joe Wilson."
(New York Times, Oct 16, 2005)

This is important. What this illustrates is something both deceptive and destructive. By having himself identified as someone from the Hill, while at the same time Karl Rove, and others are going out identified as coming from other areas (Bolton as a State Department official? Rove as Administration? Hadley as Intelligence?) it now appears that there are multiple places that have issues with Wilson's (correct) assessment of the Africa uranium affair. Nothing would have been further from the truth.

The administration deliberately worked to deceive the American public by manipulating the media. That doesn't come as a shock to anyone who doesn't like the Bush administration, but for people who have been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, here is your smoking gun.

They deliberately lied to the public to further their political agenda.

Whether I like a person's politics or not is one thing. Abusing the public trust in this manner is something else entirely. It may not be illegal, but it is worse than criminal.