independance!”

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald should investigate Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the CIA leak probe if they authorized an aide to give secret information to reporters, Democratic and Republican senators said Sunday. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called the leak of intelligence information “inappropriate” if it is true that unnamed “superiors” instructed Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, to divulge the material on Iraq.

Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said a full investigation is necessary. “I don’t think anybody should be releasing classified information, period, whether in the Congress, executive branch or some underling in some bureaucracy,” said Allen, who appeared with Reed on “Fox News Sunday.” (emphasis mine)

This isn’t one of the so-called “mavericks” — McCain or one of the New England centrists — saying that. Allen is about as much of a loyal Bushite as you can find. Even if it’s a campaign trick, this says a lot. If there was a wave of pressure from within the GOP to deal with such blatant violations then the administration would lose the ability to claim every criticism was “partisan”, whether it comes because of principles or because of necessity in an election year (I personally suspect it’ll largely be the latter) that’ll be a net plus.

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