Friday, February 10, 2006

ire o' knee

right after 9/11, people started saying that irony was dead. but it quickly became apparent that instead of dying, irony has, in fact, prospered and reached new heights never dreamed of before. indeed, "irony" seems to come up almost constantly when we're talking about the bush administration these days. i've even gotten a little sick of using the "I word" around here.

so today the new york times publishes an editorial by porter goss, the head of the CIA, arguing that unauthorized leaks of classified information are not only criminal, but also dangerous to u.s. security. meanwhile, today it was also reported that dick cheney authorized lewis libby to leak the classified information about valerie plame's identity to the press.

the goss editorial was probably directed at the leakers of the NSA wiretap program (even though the editorial itself doesn't mention that case nor does it provide any plausible theory why that leak would have been dangerous). it looks a lot like it was intended to be just another cog in the grand NSA surveillance scandal pushback we've been seeing. but when i read the editorial after seeing several reports about cheney's leaky activities, it comes across as an argument that the vice president endangered national security for political gain.

...and, in a related story, will bush fire cheney or quit? or was he just full of shit?