Of interest

Here's an iconoclastic view on Rove/Libby/Plame from the libertarian isolationist Independent Institute. Karl Rove must go.

For an administration that accuses critics of the Iraq war of being “unpatriotic,� the cynical exposure of a U.S. covert intelligence officer by administration officials is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. Given my opposition to the war, I am reluctant to impugn anyone’s patriotism. But what Rove and Libby perpetrated was not a mere disagreement on policy. Government officials who were truly patriotic would never undermine the nation’s intelligence efforts and endanger the lives of people who take great risks to help protect this country.

The conventional wisdom is that President Bush never fires anyone. That is not true. Unfortunately, he usually fires truth tellers that stray from official White House spin—for example, Gen. Edward Shinseki, the Chief of Staff of the Army, for saying that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to occupy Iraq, and Larry Lindsey, the president’s chief economist, for his estimate that the war in Iraq would cost $200 billion. This time the president should fire some of the liars who have been loyal to the White House but disloyal to the nation.

I'm not sure Lindsey was fired for speaking the "truth" on the cost of the Iraq war. He was cut essentially because the Bush economic team was stagnant. But Eland, accepting Joseph Wilson-Plame's version of the events, is certainly bold. Cracks in the libertarian-conservative coalition are beginning to widen.