Brad DeLong makes a good point. Whoever knew this and failed to immediately report it to the Justice Department is an accessory after the fact and liable for up to 5 years.
The highly intelligent and usually very thoughtful Daniel Drezner has not thought this through. Whether or not he knew about it beforehand, for two and a half months--ever since two senior White House officials called six reporters and got Robert Novak to take the bait in his July 14 column--George W. Bush has "condoned this type of White House activity." No heads have rolled. No sanctions have been applied. The White House's posture has one of hunkering down: that this is no big deal, that this will pass, that nothing internal has to change, and that this is a tempest in a teapot. Whether or not George W. Bush knew beforehand, his reactions since July 14 put him well over the line of "condoning." We don't need to write, "If George Bush knew about or condoned..." We need instead to write, "Since George Bush condoned..."
Current Events » in reply to Finally...
re: Finally...