Tuesday during the Senate shut down that Harry Reid caused, the Situation
Room had James Carville on talking about the leak investigation. During his
statements they were discussing the need for the vice-President to come clean on
his involvement in the leak. I thought it was interesting when Carville said “we
need the President to come clean”.

Appearing in tomorrow’s edition of the New York Times is an article which
also addresses the President’s involvement.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 – In the hours before the Justice Department informed
the White House in late September 2003 that it would investigate the leak of
a covert C.I.A. officer’s identity, Scott McClellan, the White House press
secretary, gave reporters what turned out to be a rare glimpse into
President Bush’s knowledge of the case.

Mr. Bush, he said, “knows” that Karl Rove, his senior adviser, had not
been the source of the leak. Pressed on how Mr. Bush was certain, Mr.
McClellan said he was “not going to get into conversations that the
president has with advisers,” but made no effort to erase the impression
that Mr. Rove had assured Mr. Bush that he had not been involved.

Since then, administration officials and Mr. Bush himself have carefully
avoided disclosing anything about any involvement the president may have had
in the events surrounding the disclosure of the officer’s identity or
anything about what his aides may have told them about their roles. Citing
the continuing investigation and now the pending trial of I. Lewis Libby
Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, they have declined
to comment on almost any aspect of the case.

The issue now for the White House is how long it can go on deflecting the
inquiries and trying to keep the focus away from Mr. Bush.

While there has been no suggestion that Mr. Bush did anything wrong, the
portrait of the White House that was painted by the special counsel in the
indictment of Mr. Libby was one in which a variety of senior officials,
including Mr. Cheney, played some role in events that preceded the
disclosure of the officer’s identity.

Mr. Bush was not mentioned in the indictment. But the fact that so many
of his aides seem to have been involved in dealing with the issue that
eventually led to the leak – how to rebut or discredit Joseph C. Wilson IV,
a former diplomat who had challenged the administration’s handling of prewar
intelligence – leaves open the question of what the president knew.

Article continues

here.

Considering the buck stops in the Oval Office, it is only true that the
President should come clean. The honor and integrity he promised to restore to
the White House depends upon this.