Searching for the real leaker

The most remarkable bit of amnesia from George Bush's pre-Christmas news conference was this --

QUESTION: Thank you, sir. Mr. President, did you or your chief of staff order an investigation of the leak of the Hadley memo before your meeting with Prime Minister al-Maliki? And if the leak wasn't authorized, do you suspect someone in your administration is trying to undermine your Iraq policy or sabotage your meeting with Prime Minister al-Maliki a few weeks back?

BUSH: I'm trying to think back if I ordered an investigation. I don't recall ordering an investigation. I do recall expressing some angst about ongoing leaks. You all work hard to find information and, of course, put it out for public consumption, and I understand that.

But I don't appreciate those who leak classified documents. And it's an ongoing problem here. ... And we've had a lot of leaks. As you know, some of them -- I don't know where they're from. Therefore, I'm not going to speculate. Turns out you never can find the leaker. It's an advantage you have in doing your job. We can moan about it, but it's hard to find them ... You know, there may be an ongoing investigation of this. I just don't know if there is. If I knew about it, it's not fresh in my mind. But I do think that at some point in time it'd be helpful, if we can find somebody inside our government who is leaking materials -- clearly against the law -- that they be held to account. Perhaps the best way to make sure people don't leak classified documents is that there be, you know, a consequence for doing so.

In addition to his admission that he doesn't know what his own Administration is doing, he displays the passive voice about all the previous leaks -- the authorised leaks to the media about WMD, the Karl Rove-Scooter Libby leaks about Valerie Plame. And he forgets that there is an actual law against leaks, the Espionage Act, which has been enforced in some cases. Of course one problem he faces that a leak investigation in the case of the Hadley memo would lead back to Dick Cheney's office, exactly where the trail of previous leaks ends as well.