Wow, are you clutching at straws or what?

To the first--probably the leaker is a pissed off lifer at either Justice, NSA or CIA--one of hundreds and probably thousands that are now officially fed up with the lies, incompetence, and criminal acts that exemplify this administration. You'd be amazed at how many of these guys are floating around. And what kind of records some of them keep. And some of them even know reporters!

But this is pure three card monte that you and the white house are playing--the real issue is that Bush clearly has been engaged in exactly the kind of thing that forced Nixon's resignation--the illegal use of our national security apparatus, spying on American citizens, and bypassing the judicial branch. All highly impeachable offenses, to add to the growing list of impeachable offenses this administration is guilty of. And this one has the additional feature of having a recent, and undeniable precedent in Nixon. Both used elements of the national security apparatus to spy on Americans, and political opponents, for their own purposes. Nixon was forced to resign. Bush?

And the canard that these rights were granted Bush by Congress? Au contraire. Congress specifically denied the request in 2003.

To the second--Powell supports some level of "eavesdropping", as long as they have due cause and a warrant. He wonders why they didnt just get warrants. A little bird tells me that the reason for that is to minimize the paper trail, as the off- the-record and illegal wiretaps were primarily against, not Al Qaeda, or anyone vaguely affiliated with terrorism, but instead against political opponents of Bush and the neocons. Like, say, John Kerry.

And wow, stop the presses! So US intelligence agencies use wiretaps! Oh no, what will Al Qaeda do with that shocking information? What a dastardly thing to do, to let that secret knowledge get out! And we use computers???!! How can we let such information into the public marketplace?!!! Clearly a treasonous leak! Easily on a par with burning a twenty-five year cover of an anti-WMD unit of the CIA for purely selfish political reasons. After all, everybody knew that Valerie Plame wasnt really an energy analyst, and that Brewster Jennings was a front company. And who needs the four to six hundred people that got burned there? It's only nuclear arms control.

To the third, well, to me, neither are terribly inspiring, and Rice'll be lucky to avoid indictment. But are you telling us that you want Condi Rice as President?