Tom Harkin: “Today we observe a sad milestone in the scandal and tragedy that some have labeled 'leakgate.' It has been exactly 1…”

“Today we observe a sad milestone in the scandal and tragedy that some have labeled 'leakgate.' It has been exactly 1 year, July 14, since two senior White House officials leaked Valerie Plame's identity as a covert operative at the Central Intelligence Agency. Last July 14, 2003, 8 days after Ms. Plame's husband published an op-ed in the New York Times which questioned information in the President's 2003 State of the Union message regarding a supposed effort by Iraq to purchase uranium from Africa, her identity was revealed in print by columnist Robert Novak. This illegal act should have outraged everyone at the White House. It should have moved President Bush immediately to demand the identity of the perpetrators. Instead, in his only public statement about this act of betrayal, Mr. Bush smiled--yes, he smiled--and said: This is a town that likes to leak. I don't know if we are going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials. I don't have any idea. Again, he said it with kind of a smirk and a wry smile on his face. I consider that statement to be disingenuous.”