"Have you talked to Karl and do you have confidence in him?" a reporter asked President Bush on Sept. 30, 2003. "Listen, I know of nobody," he replied. "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

What a tangled web we weave when an administration's secret weapon is to deceive. The Bush crime family find themselves embroiled in the heat of controversy amid an incumbent term marred by slumping approval ratings, the battle for Iraq following the coming attractions script of Vietnam 2: Weapons of Mass Distraction and the fallout of the roundly criticized overhaul of Social Security. Poor Dumbya. At a time like this, the last thing needed is another scandal.

Enter Valerie Wilson.

Wife of former Ambassador to Gabon & São Tomé and Príncipe , Wilson (née Plame) was leaked as a CIA operative in an article written by conservative columnist, Bob Novak. The what and why's of the identity reveal was clear from the outset. Joseph C. Wilson IV penned the now infamous New York Times op-ed in July 2003 accusing key players at the White House for lashing out as payback for his reasonings that no link was to be found between Iraq and Niger in uranium purchases and the facts were being manipulated as cause for war. Now the who and how's have come starkly into full focus...and to Team Bush's dismay, it lands right at the feet of the Head Henchman In Charge: Karl Rove. Some coincidence that a mere 3 days before speaking with Time reporter Matt Cooper, Plame's name was in lights – completely exposed.

Tactics like this come naturally for the man generally known as the brain behind the Oval Office. Just ask Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) who was alleged to have an illegitimate Black child and wife was painted as a druggie right up to the 2000 South Carolina primary. Or ask Ann Richards, who had her sexual orientation called into question during the 1994 Texas gubnatorial race.

Could you imagine if Bill Clinton had protected James Carville from the line of fire for committing the same act? Conservative pundits would scream treason faster than Ann Coulter with a front-row seat at the Democratic National Convention. Funny how these same right-wing apologists basically trump up Rove's waning integrity (an oxymoron if there ever was one) as evidence of whistle blowing to the benefit of good ol' Uncle Sam.

The notion that the someone in question who could wind up falling into their own trap of sabotage would be the very architect of Bush's campaign to humiliate, defame and utterly trash the credibility of his opponents doesn't only seem the height of irony, but poetic justice indeed. Equally vindicating is the silence broken by nonpartisan media in finally having the balls to publicize what a slumbering public needs to hear. The Teflon coating that's surrounded them is starting to show chinks in the armor. Historically, the second time around for a sitting president has always been a stumbling block and this has the potential for sparking the brush fire of downfalls.

Tom Teepen of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune crystallizes a seething resentment that is ready to emerge from the political backrooms into the white-hot spotlight of national headlines:

"Criminally liable or not, Rove's nasty and anonymous tattling reveals a spiteful and unhesitatingly vicious presidency, willing to destroy the sound reputations of two federal officials who have devoted their careers to working for this country. And all that just to punish and blunt a defensible dissent. That, in my book, is worse than criminal."