Have They No Sense of Decency Left?

So yesterday we found out who the person was who released Valerie Plame’s name, as well as other vital national secrets, to a reporter as part of a disgusting slime and defend attack on Joe Wilson, which was itself part of a larger plan to cover-up the Administration lies promoting the invasion of Iraq.

It wasn’t Scooter Libby. It wasn’t Dick Cheney. It was George W. Bush himself. Of course, Scooter held the meeting with Judith Miller, where he disclosed the classified NIE, on the orders of Dick Cheney, on the direct orders of George Bush.

So said Scooter Libby under oath. The story has been out for almost two full days and has not been denied by the White House. Rather, the spin seems to be that Bush has the authority to do this as President.

Will this fly? Or will this finally be the sordid incident in a wasted career of a pathetic life that brings George Bush down?

He deliberately exposed the identity of an undercover CIA agent (who was working to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons) and revealed other national secrets to just threaten her husband, a hero who had stood up to Saddam Hussein in 1991, and who was asking questions about Bush’s reasons for going to war.

Will be people be outraged by this? Or will they buy Bush’s and the media’s argument that it’s okay, because when the President decides to leak a secret, it’s not a secret anymore because he decided to leak it?

Is that what this country has been reduced to? Bland acceptance of treason based on bullying and fear? Is this the newest twist on Nationalism? A hyper-aggressive embracement of mean-spirited cruelty, even at the expense of the safety of the country?

Where the decent part of nationalism is replaced the crude tactics that often accompany it -- intimidation, threats, violence, until, in the end, that is all it celebrates?

Should we have seen this coming with the treatment of John McCain in the primaries in 2000? With the mob that stormed the election office in Florida to rob Al Gore of the election? With the Swift Boating of John Kerry?

Have they shame? No sense of decency left, at long last?

Will this be George Bush’s legacy? To have debased and corrupted American politics, to have taken government to a new low, lacking all humanity, and any sense of restraint that are the hallmarks of civilization?