Hypocrisy over leaks strains White House credibility

Editorial in today's San Jose Mercury News: Hypocrisy over leaks strains White House credibility.

When the furor over the leaking of the name of former CIA operative Valerie Plame exploded onto the national scene in 2003, President Bush claimed to be outraged about it and furious that anyone in his administration would be leaking any secrets.

We still don't know who authorized the Plame leak. But special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who was appointed to investigate, now has revealed that the campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Bush critic Joseph Wilson, was directed from the Oval Office. It included a separate leak in 2003 of a classified document about prewar intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which was authorized by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The president's defenders are now working overtime to redefine the meaning of ``leak,'' saying the president has the right to declassify documents. He may well have that authority. But his appointed leaker, former Cheney adviser I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby Jr., peddled the intelligence information to reporters 10 days before Bush declassified it. If that's not a leak of classified information, we don't know what is. ...