Go tell it on the mountain

I would like to start off by level setting expections for this blog post pamphleteering entry: Ted Rall is a maniac. He's a progressive, liberal writer and I truly believe that his intentions are good and his heart's in the right place, but when it comes to shrill, let's face it... the guy is off the charts. Also, whoever is publishing his work seriously needs to get an editor to look at the punctuation.

None the less, he has a column this week where he puts forth his latest theorty: Karl Rove is worse than Osama bin Laden. What leads him to this conclusion? The same thing we've been talking about for the last week, vis-a-vis the leaking of Valerie Plame's CIA identity to Bob Novak.

As far as we know, no one on what passes for the "left" (which would be the center-right anywhere else) has betrayed the United States in the GWOT. No anti-Bush progressive has made common cause with Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan or any other officially designated "terrorist" group. No American liberal has handed over classified information or worked to undermine the CIA.

But it now appears that Karl Rove, GOP golden boy, has done exactly that.

Last week Time magazine turned over its reporter's notes to a special prosecutor assigned to learn who told Republican columnist Bob Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. The revelation, which effectively ended Plame's CIA career and may have endangered her life, followed her husband Joe Wilson's publication of a New York Times op-ed piece that embarrassed the Bush Administration by debunking its claims that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger. Time's cowardly decision to break its promise to a confidential source has had one beneficial side effect: according to Newsweek, it indicates that Karl Rove himself made the call to Novak.

It's good to see some professional journalists catching up with a concept that Middle Earth Journal had its collective mind wrapped around for a long time. So, assuming that we (and Rall) are correct in this assumption, what's to be done? Rall has some thoughts.

If Newsweek's report is accurate, Karl Rove is more morally repugnant and more anti-American than Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, after all, has no affiliation with, and therefore no presumed loyalty to, the United States. Rove, on the other hand, is a U.S. citizen and, as deputy White House chief of staff, a high-ranking official of the U.S. government sworn to uphold and defend our nation, its laws and its interests. Yet he sold out America just to get even with Joe Wilson.

Osama bin Laden, conversely, is loyal to his cause. He has never exposed an Al Qaeda agent's identity to the media.

"[Knowingly revealing Plame's name and undercover status to the media]...is a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and is punishable by as much as ten years in prison," notes the Washington Post. Unmasking an intelligent agent during a time of war, however, surely rises to giving aid and comfort to America's enemies--treason. Treason is punishable by execution under the United States Code.

As I said... a bit shrill, perhaps, but I imagine we could find a squad of patriotic Americans willing to put old Karl up against a wall and brush up on their sharp shooting skills. Food for thought, Ted, and thanks for sharing.