mehlmaniacal

Grandma "I Ain't Got Cable" Dan does Mehlman and other shining points of light, citing Betsy's Page:

"And don't get on me about how terrible it was to out a CIA agent's name. As far as I understand, she had a desk job here in Virgina. She wasn't undercover and as the mother of toddler twins probably wasn't heading out undercover for a long time. If Wilson had been so worried about his wife's name he would have stayed quiet. Apparently, lots of people knew that she worked for the CIA and he had to know that that would come out if he started putting himself forward to oppose Bush's policy. Especially, since he had to know that he was mischaracterizing what he found out in Niger. And if he was truly so mortified, perhaps he wouldn't have posed for Vanity Fair with his wife." [Helmut: Dan sent me a link from my Great Aunt Betsy -- it's brilliant (if you're into the master-slave dialectic and stuff like that) in her lovable glass menagerie kind of way: Betsy's Page].

I like the idea that if your wife works for the CIA you are under a virtual gag-order lest you piss somebody off and they pay you back by intentionally endangering your wife's life. He should have known that's what would happen. Pig. Perhaps lots of people did know. Her coworkers knew. Maybe some close friends. But none of those people published the information in a nationally syndicated column.

Thanks to Dan for this informative comment. Dan is the winner of yesterday's fruit: the papaya.