And history ain’t changed

Today's NYT web front page gives prominent play to two stories:

Senator Presses White House on Leaking Qaeda Suspect's Name
Senator Charles Schumer said the disclosure of a suspect's capture may have complicated efforts to combat terror.

Reporter Ordered to Testify Over C.I.A. Leak
A federal judge held a reporter for Time magazine in contempt for refusing to name the officials who leaked an agent's identity.

The first refers to the apparently premature divulging of the name of an al Qaeda operative arrested in Pakistan; the Pakistanis had made him a double agent and wanted to keep the name under wraps as long as possible, but it was released as part of the spin operation to justify the recent terror alert. The second refers to the leaking of the CIA identity of Joseph Wilson's wife, he had been pouring cold water on Dubya's Niger--Iraq--uranium claims.

Thus all the pundits who try and confine Dubya's missteps as isolated incidents now have to confront his systematic tendency to use the media to leak secret stuff when spin requires it. Remember Dubya's own eloquent advice about falling twice for the same trick:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."—Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002