The White House’s response to the Plame affair has been pretty absurd so far, but now they’re into theater. By insisting on disclosure from 2,000 people, they’ve cast the net so wide they’re almost certain to allow the real culprit to escape. Novak’s “Senior Officials” must have come from a group much smaller than 2,000 Executive employees, and smart money is on folks very close to the Oval Office.

Not that they care, of course. They have aggressively tried to shape this as an issue of an innocuous leak, not one that put real people in real danger and that really, honest-to-God violated Federal law. Now Bush is saying he has “no idea” whether Justice will find the person responsible. I’m sure Ashcroft’s DOJ is working overtime on this one, too, aren’t you?