Today’s WSJ has a good, concise rundown on the Plame debacle (Hat tip: RealClearPolitics). First it brings out a revelation that supports my contention that the outing of Plame is not an issue anymore. Surprisingly this comes from the very media who called for the investigation:

On the “no underlying crime” point, moreover, no less than the New York Times and Washington Post now agree. So do the 36 major news organizations that filed a legal brief in March aimed at keeping Mr. Cooper and the New York Times’s Judith Miller out of jail.

“While an investigation of the leak was justified, it is far from clear–at least on the public record–that a crime took place,” the Post noted the other day. Granted the media have come a bit late to this understanding, and then only to protect their own, but the logic of their argument is that Mr. Rove did nothing wrong either.

Curiously, they keep reporting and insinuating there was one. Is this bold face lying? But then there is the final nugget of truth laying at the bottom of this barrell (to mix metaphors, which I love to do).

In short, Joe Wilson hadn’t told the truth about what he’d discovered in Africa, how he’d discovered it, what he’d told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission. The media and the Kerry campaign promptly abandoned him, though the former never did give as much prominence to his debunking as they did to his original accusations. But if anyone can remember another public figure so entirely and thoroughly discredited, let us know.

If there’s any scandal at all here, it is that this entire episode has been allowed to waste so much government time and media attention, not to mention inspire a “special counsel” probe.

Yes, it has been a waste of time and energy. Thank the liberals and the liberal MSM for this soap opera (no disrespect meant to afternoon TV). Desparation can create strange and ugly results – as this episode seems to be proving out.