Ooops, who left that faucet running again? No wonder the damn water bill is so high...

George W. Bush, 9/30/03:

And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.

Tom Delay, 7/13/05:

The law specifically says that the CIA operative, they're trained to keep them covert. That means usually they're overseas, they're not working out of Langley driving in and out of the gate, they are truly undercover, and you leak it, you're breaking the law.

That wasn't the case. That wasn't the case here. Ms. Plame was working at Langley, coming and going quite obvious she was working for the CIA and this...uh...er..this...there may be other's who leaked...uh...we'll find out when the investigation is over.

Paul Bedard, 7/3/07:

Robert Novak:

"I am sure it was not a planned leak but came out as an offhand observation."

The rest is history. Novak was investigated in the CIA spy case, slammed by fellow journalists for "outing" an agent, the subject of what he calls false stories, kicked off his regular CNN gig, and barred from Meet the Press for two years-and out $160,000 in legal fees. Still, he writes,

"Judging it on the merits, I would still write the story."

Bob Ewegen, Denver Post, 7/6/07:

I am angry at the underlying event - the fact that an American patriot whose only crime was to serve her country in a dangerous and honorable profession had her mission undercut for partisan political purposes.

I am even angrier that the vicious "outing" of Valerie Plame put her sources at risk - the men and women in foreign countries who had risked their own lives to help America in our war on terror.

In the intelligence trade, such foreign sources are called "assets." I call them heroes. And they are the ones who were put most at risk after columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's CIA connection as part of a clumsy Bush administration effort to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had become a critic of the Iraq war.

I will never forgive anyone who willfully puts the lives of America's military or intelligence personnel or our friends abroad in danger.

And that's exactly what former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage did when he leaked Plame's identity to Novak - and what Novak did when he published the name of a covert CIA agent.

Between Armitage's dishonorable act and Novak's dishonorable act were a string of other dishonorable acts, including an executive order by President Bush empowering Vice President Cheney to declassify classified information, which Cheney did, thus allowing Libby to shop Plame's identity around in hopes of finding a journalist willing to smear Wilson through his wife. With Libby's information confirming Armitage's original tip, Novak willingly blew Plame's cover.

In so doing, he didn't put Plame at personal risk, because she was not overseas at the time. But he did irrevocably damage her mission - and put those human "assets" at risk.

You see, al-Qaeda and its ilk rarely try to kill CIA agents - or anyone else who can fight back. What these cowards do is kill people who have worked with U.S. agents.

You can imagine the conversation: "Hmm, that Valerie Plame who visited here turns out to be a CIA agent. Didn't she hang out at Hamid's coffee shop a lot?"

Next day, Hamid's body turns up, along with the bodies of his wife and family, all of whom were tortured to death before his eyes.

That's the way our enemies play the game. That's why we train brave men and women like Valerie Plame so America can fight back.

Politics, or national security?

Politics.

Politics, or the safety of our combatants and allies in the war on terror?

Politics.

Politics, or the Law?

Politics.

Politics, or common sense?

Politics.

Politics, or--

Politics.