His carefully worded denials (I did not reveal her NAME), while Clintonesque in nature, do not change the fact that he outed an undercover CIA operative for partisan reasons. Technically legal or not, it smacks of treason (he undermined counter-terrorism efforts). The argument that he knew Plame worked for the CIA, but didn't know in what capacity doesn't hold much water, she was supposed to be undercover afterall. Rove is just one of hundreds of politicians on both sides of the aisle that I want to see resign...

LB buddy: Evidence please that Plame was an undercover CIA operative and that her exposure in any way undermined counter-terrorism efforts.

Everything I've seen indicates that it was widely known in D.C. circles that Plame was a CIA employee and had not been out-of-country for 6+ years, so she couldn't have been undercover, and that she was involved in non-proliferation/WMD analysis (not counter-terrorism).

The source of "outing" of Joe Wilson's wife, is Joe Wilson. Rule #1 in the intel business is, Do NOT Call Attention to Yourself. Which of course, is exactly what Joe Wilson did, when he wrote his Op-Ed on the Niger Yellow Cake. Joe's flirtation with the MSM included having an interview with a WahPo reporter, IN HIS HOUSE, with Valerie chasing the kids around. Any reporter with half a brain would naturally start asking, "So, Mrs. Wilson, where to you work ?", and any good reporter would start checking the answers. And, how long would have that stayed a secret?

JD:

The recent Republican spin does seem to try and downplay Plame's undercover status, but it doesn't really make sense for the CIA to call for an investigation into the leak if it wasn't important to keep her identity secret. If you go back to news reports in 2003, it was generally being reported like this one from Knight Ridder:
“The column identified Plame by name, blowing any hope that she could continue to work undercover and potentially endangering her overseas contacts. Federal law makes it a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for anyone with access to classified information to reveal the name of a covert government agent.”
And even better, this quote:
“The CIA declined to discuss Plame's intelligence work, but an agency official disputed suggestions that she was a mere analyst whose public exposure would have little consequence.

'If she was not undercover, we would have no reason to file a criminal referral,' the CIA official said, insisting on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.”

(http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?ts=1&display=rednews/2003/10/01/build/nation/25-leak.inc).

Rush L. and Co. tend to ignore stuff like this when they rant.

KMR may be right that Joe Wilson should have kept his mouth shut, but that doesn’t mean that what Karl did was right. Can you really argue that these were well-intentioned, harmless conversations with reporters? From the political “boy-genius” days after JW's naughty behavior?

how about llama butchers for SCOTUS

I would never get confirmed. The NAGs (National Association of Gals) would come after me hammer and tong.

Llamas on the court? Tempting. But I suspect that Robbo would get there and go all Souter on us. It would have to be a three-fer -- Steve, Robbo, and the LMC replacing O'Connor, Rehnquist, and Ginsburg.

Start that write-in campaign today!

As for Souter, I would just point out that Dave Letterman did a top ten list of ways he celebrated his appointment to the Court. My favorite? "Ate his usual lunch of cottage cheese off the chest of a thousand dollar a night hooker."

I don't think you want to be giving Steve a long black robe in close proximity to a DC metro station. I can see the WaPo headlines now "Judicial flasher strikes again".