In an early episode of M*A*S*H, Dr. Sidney Friedman analyzes Klinger.  As anyone who is even remotely aware of the series knows, Klinger was always bucking for a section 8 (Crazy) discharge.  By the end of this show, Friedman has finished his evaluation and calls Klinger in to sign it.  Klinger thinking he has gotten his section 8, is all too happy to sign until Dr. Friedman tells him what it say.  That he is a transvestite, but not crazy.  Klinger of course refused.

What brought this remembrance on, was the brouhaha over the wiretaps.  So far, no one outside of the administration knows what was wiretapped, or if any laws were broken.  Yet the Times in their inevitable glee to nail Bush for whatever they can on whatever they can, broke a story with insufficient information to actually be called a breaking story.  And the kooks on the left have taken up a chant of impeachment for Bush for high crimes and mis-demeanors, along with some of the left leadership (but then I repeat myself).

And to the delight of many, an investigation is taking place.  However, this investigation is not into what was done, but who did it.  We know the end sources, James Risen and the NY Times.  We do not know where they got their information, and even their information does not indicate a crime has been committed, only that one may have been.  Again, depending upon who was wiretapped.

But one thing seems to be certain.  Critical information was given to the enemy of what the US was doing.  As in 1998 when another story blabbed that the US was listening to Satellite phone conversations, and Bin Laden abruptly stopped using them, so the administration has declared that the revelation of this information has damaged the intelligence gathering against Al Qaeda.  So some heads are going to roll, and in this case, the NY Times seems to be front and center.  Which should not surprise them since they were one of the loudest to call for who outed Plame, at least at first.

The investigation is going to determine if anyone, and that includes the Times, violated the Espionage Act of 1917.  The investigation is not and cannot determine if the wiretaps were legal or not.  For in this case that is a matter of national security, and only Congress, and not a delegated body, can investigate that.

In the end, the truth will come out.  And the more this story progresses the more it looks like a Rathergate, with the "press" being caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  The NY Times is going to squeal like a stuck pig before this is all said and done, but they have only their bias to blame, and their hatred of a president to claim as a defense.  And as the linked commentary states, courts are not sympathetic to claims like that.