After poking around a bit, I think that what we might be seeing is the revolt and revulsion of career intelligence people towards a callow and callous misuse of their skills, offices, and lives. Ms. Plame is very popular in her community, and Wilson himself seems to have a lot of respect from that world. Tenet, too, has retained a surprising degree of loyalty among his peers, and there's apparently been some grumbling about the way he was forced to fall on his sword to protect Condi, Don, and company. They expect to have to take political bullets for the President, but even with those expectations, Tenet's false confession must have been hard to swallow. All this could mean nothing, or it could mean that the Democratic party has just inherited a small army of people who know how to play some very hard ball. Be interesting to see what follows, though we probably won't recognise it even if we see it.

As Jimmy Carter discovered, these are not people you want to mess around with, even if you are the President's closest aide. Or even the President. Speculations abound.

It is funny, though, reading Gardiner's brief. "I'm shocked, utterly shocked that there's gambling in the casino."

DB