USATODAY.com - Wanted: A redeeming character:
[Even Beltway Bandits, Bonnie and Clyde Wilson wouldn't cut it for a movie - Lucianne.com Must Reads note.]"Initially, it appeared that the scandal would have two ready-made heroes in the Wilsons. Former ambassador Joseph Wilson had publicly revealed that there was no evidence to support the president's claim that Saddam Hussein had sought to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger, a critical justification for the Iraq war. In the firestorm that followed, political figures struck back, not at Wilson, but at his wife by discussing her position as a CIA officer.
Handsome and successful, the Wilsons seemed the perfect characters. Yet, they soon began to fade as heroic figures. The toothy couple posed for pictures in a Vanity Fair spread a few months after her identity was revealed. The photo of the two preening in a Jaguar convertible with the White House in the background seemed a curious choice for a covert operative worried about her identity. Then there was their financial support for President Bush's opponents. In the end, they seemed more Beltway bandits than citizen soldiers."
[...] Various other reporters accepted the waiver and testified. Only Miller refused. It is now clear that there was no reason for Miller to go to jail, and her heroic stand appears to be a type of Joan-of-Arc syndrome. Even her editors recently accused Miller of misleading them on her true role and "entanglements" with Libby.
To make matters worse, Miller agreed to identify him as a "former Hill staffer." Calling Libby a former Hill staffer is like anonymously quoting Vice President Cheney as a "former rancher." It was designed to shield the involvement of one of the highest administration officials.
Miller's discrediting left the cast of this drama devoid of a positive figure. For their parts, Libby and Rove struggled to prove that they may have been unethical but they were not technically criminal in their conduct.
Columnist Robert Novak, who first revealed Plame's identity, has admitted that a CIA source asked him not to reveal her name. Still, Novak chose to do so in a clearly senseless act. Novak then refused to tell other journalists whether he has cooperated with prosecutors. His decision to out Plame has now ended her career and embroiled the Bush administration in a two-year scandal that cost millions to investigate.
The Plame affair now looks like a political version of Murder on the Orient Express, where we find in the end that everyone harbored a dark motive and contributed to the final deed.
Perhaps it is as good as a Beltway drama gets, but it would have been nice if we had even a minor character left at the end worth caring about.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors. [My ellipses and emphasis]
