Wondering more about the Plame case

The Plame case is fascinating only because it is completely a human affair, and it's filled with anticipation. The Wall Street Journal comments about it today:

All the more so because this entire probe began and has continued as a kind of proxy for the larger political war about the Iraq War. In July 2003, Joseph Wilson used his insider status as a former CIA consultant to accuse the Bush Administration of lying about Iraq WMD as an excuse to go to war. A political furor erupted, and Mr. Wilson became an antiwar celebrity who joined the Kerry for President campaign.

Amid an election campaign and a war, Bush Administration officials understandably fought back. One way they did so was to tell reporters that Mr. Wilson's wife, CIA analyst Valerie Plame, had been instrumental in getting him the CIA consulting job. This was true--though Mr. Wilson denied it at the time--as a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee documented in 2004.

As it does many times each year following a press report with classified information, the CIA routinely referred this "leak" about Ms. Plame's status to the Justice Department for investigation. Only after someone (probably at the CIA) leaked news of this referral to the media in September 2003 was there another political uproar and calls for a "special prosecutor." Three months later, the panicky Bush Administration relented, and Mr. Fitzgerald was appointed.

I agree with this assesment. It seems that Wilson was trying to use his Wife's supposed secret status to get the job to go to Niger. He knew that no one would risk exposing his wife, so he felt he was safe.....but things changed.

The one thing that has always bugged me is all the supposed leaks of classified information. How does the press get a a hold of some of this stuff. A lot of it was supposedly being leaked from the CIA or State Department. This isn't supposed to happen. Fitzgerald should go after the lower level CIA leakers and expose them for these leaks.

UPDATE: Michael Barone also comments on the case.