If revealing Plame’s identity was a crime (as GWB said it was) and if he promised to fire anyone in his administration who “violated law,” then didn’t he promise to fire whoeve revealed Plame’s idenity? So what’s Karl Rove doing still having a job, let alone a Top Secret Clearance?
George W. Bush said that revealing Valerie Plame’s identity was “a criminal action.”
And George W. Bush said that whoever had committed a crime in connection with that affair would be fired.
But Tom Maguire — who is often capable of logical thought — thinks it just terribly unfair of the Democrats to say that George W. Bush promised to fire whoever revealed Valerie Plame’s identity, or to expect him to carry through on that commitment when the culprit turned out to be his very own brain, Karl Rove.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman