Beyond disloyalty

It seemed bad enough that Secretary of State Colin Powell’s former deputy, Richard Armitage, had been so disloyal to President Bush as to blindside him for over two years about Armitage’s role in the so-called Plame Affair. This revelation was, of course, no surprise to those who had observed the systematic disloyalty that characterized much of Messrs. Powell and Armitage’s "service" to this President during his first term. Still, this particular breach of trust was repugnant in the extreme.

What was worse and surprising, however, is that Rich Armitage has also apparently lied about what he first said to columnist Robert Novak concerning Ms. Plame, the former CIA official and wife of Bush-hater Amb. Joe Wilson, and the manner in which this information was disclosed. In a syndicated column published this week, Novak excoriates Armitage – the source the veteran journalist had protected so assiduously – both for not coming forward before now and for being "deceptive" about the nature of the then-Deputy Secretary of State’s original leak.

According to Novak: "First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he ‘thought’ might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chit-chat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column."

Novak adds that, Armitage’s failure to reveal his role to President Bush for "two and one-half years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse [presidential advisor Karl] Rove of being my primary source."

Ever since Colin Powell and Rich Armitage were let go by President Bush at the start of his second term, reporters have suggested the latter was under consideration for various senior positions that have subsequently come open. Mention that Armitage was on the short list for top White House, Pentagon and intelligence jobs were surely favors from journalists appreciative for past leaks and ad hominem backgrounders that Powell’s enforcer deemed "suited" for selected members of the Fourth Estate. Such journalists could also have been reasonably sure that, had these postings panned out, the favor would have been returned in the form of similar, fruitful access to Armitage in the future.

Presumably, Rich Armitage’s name will not be gracing any short-lists for powerful jobs from now on. After all, who would credit the idea that this president — or any other one with even a lick of sense — would be willing to employ so manifestly disloyal and dishonest an individual?

Of course, Rich Armitage may not be available in any event. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, whose conduct of the Plame investigation has been called into fresh, and serious, question – most forcefully in an excellent op.ed. published in Friday’s Wall Street Journal by the indefatigable Victoria Toensing – by revelations about his handling of Armitage’s initial admission and subsequent silence, would appear to have a new obligation: Reviewing the record of the former Deputy Secretary of State’s three appearances under oath before the grand jury to establish whether Mr. Armitage should now be prosecuted for perjury.