If the speculators are right and indictments in
the Valerie Plame investigation are served, then it is a safe bet that
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had at least one official (or
former official) of the Bush White House who turned government
informant. And that should come as no surprise. It takes a
Herculean effort on the part of all participants to keep a conspiracy
together. It takes but one conspirator to bring it down. No
matter how many Gordon Liddys, there's bound to be one John Dean.
That is the flaw of every conspiracy.
The spoilers are varied but predictable: the blowhard who brags about
his involvement to others; the self-preservationist who turns informant
to avoid a harsher penalty from the law; the criminal who seeks
contrition through confession; the disillusioned whistleblower. I
have a hunch that in the context of the Valerie Plame investigation,
the spoiler in the White House will likely be the disillusioned
whistleblower. Politics has a tendency to attract two types of
people: those who are born crooks, and those who are born
idealists. Based on all that we know about the Bush-Cheney
Administration (and more that we are no doubt soon to discover)
idealists don't stand a chance. And with the lust for power, the
relentless ends-justify-the-means-by-any-means-necessary tactics, and
the arrogance of this Administration typified by an insider who once
stated to a reporter, "We're an empire now, we create our own reality,"
an idealist would be compelled to come forward. An idealist who
took a job in the Bush-Cheney Administration, one who was a true
believer but dedicated public servant, only to discover the steady diet
of lies, deceits, manipulations, and extortions served by this White
House, must by now have undertaken the disillusionment and tortured
introspection of Hamlet.