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A few weeks ago, writing in the Washington Post, Michael Kinsley took a joyful ride through the topsy-turvy, loopy-loops of the Plame leak investigation, proving along the way that there’s more than one way to ride a “Scooter.” Noting the complexities of the case, Kinsley concluded, “Many of these contradictions and ambiguities will surely be resolved in Act Two. Please take your seats. The performance is about to begin.”
This week, after a brief intermission, the curtains once again parted on the most theatrical show in the District. Improbably, the second (or is it the third? or fourth?) act of The Crying Plame seems with each passing moment more like it was scripted by Samuel Beckett than by Patrick Fitzgerald.
Wait — is that Bob Woodward, entering stage right, to talk with the special prosecutor? It can’t be! It is!
On Wednesday, Woodward released a statement to the Washington Post acknowledging his previously hidden role in the mysterious mess, writing that he had testified about the Plame case to Fitzgerald.
“I was first contacted by Fitzgerald’s office on Nov. 3 after one of these officials went to Fitzgerald to discuss an interview with me in mid-June 2003 during which the person told me Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst,” Woodward wrote. “I have not been released to disclose the source’s name publicly.”
Once upon a time, Woodward’s reluctance to reveal a source’s name made him, in the eyes of his peers, the ultimate reporter’s reporter. This week, however, his reluctance to reveal publicly a source’s name has made him something else in the eyes of some of his peers — a hack’s hack.
Such is the inverted logic of this case, which again and again has taken everything we thought we knew about journalism, flipped it over, and spanked it like a helpless baby.
Government leakers are good for democracy; government leakers are bad for democracy. Charges of perjury are serious; charges of perjury are frivolous. Government officials get burned when secret sources go to Woodward; Woodward gets burned when secret sources go to government officials. Journalists need a federal shield law to protect them from reckless prosecutors; journalists need a federal shield law to protect them from reckless sources.
And for the final act? One shudders at the possibilities. It now seems that any Washington journalist could waltz out from backstage at any moment. Has anybody seen Seymour Hersh recently? How about Howell Raines? What’s Armstrong Williams up to these days?
And with the announcement that he’s already asked to convene another grand jury, it’s only a matter of time before Fitzgerald reappears on stage himself. Wearing a cape, perhaps. Maybe he’ll saw Lewis Libby in half, make Robert Novak disappear with a snap of his fingers, and pull Dick Cheney out of a hat.
We just hope there’s not an encore.
Felix Gillette writes about the media for The New York Observer.