Ah, who doesn't enjoy the mad religious fervor of a good political scandal? It makes you wistful for those happy Clinton years, when I could have gotten a well-paying job right out of college and conservative zealots and the media alike would latch onto any hint of scandal -- from cigars to swamp land in Arkansas.

Of course, ever since September 11th the media has pussyfooted around this administration because, after all, you can't be too hard on a "wartime" president. Yet as Bush's popularity dropped it became safer to dip the occasional toe into the waters of presidential criticism, and today they're back in full-force ready to nit-pick the Bush League once again -- the fair treatment any sitting president deserves.

This time around, it's a steamy tale of deception and revenge, the CIA, weapons of mass destruction, a power-hungry government and the woman who was caught in the middle.

In a July 2003 column, conservative columnist Robert Novak cited two unnamed "top administration officials" who outed Valerie Wilson -- AKA Valerie Plame -- as a CIA operative. Plame just happens to be the wife of former US Ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson, a harsh critic of the president's unsubstantiated claim that Iraq had been seeking to purchase weapons-grade uranium from Niger.

Ambassador Wilson was sent by the Bush administration in 2002 to confirm or deny this fact. Wilson reported that the intelligence was "highly unlikely," unable to unearth any evidence that the reports were true. Wilson -- along with top ranking Democrats -- believe that the White House leak exposing Plame as a CIA operative was a sort of cruel revenge for her husband's criticisms of the administration. Seeing how exposing a CIA operative is a felony, this week the Justice Department has finally issued a probe into the matter.

First of all, it is possible that Plame is only an analyst with the Agency. But were she an agent in the field, by exposing her (and her maiden name), these "top administration officials" could very well be placing her life, the lives of her contacts, as well as our national security at risk. Security concerns aside, the real crime here is that someone in this administration felt it was worth abusing their power to ruin a woman's career in an attempt to punish her husband's outspoken remarks against the Bush Regime.

Unlike Ambassador Wilson and many left-wing pundits, I won't go so far as to claim that Karl Rove did it -- there isn't enough evidence to suggest that this is true (and I already make enough biased assumptions as it is) -- but given Rove's reputation for exacting vengeance against his foes I have a sneaking suspicion this may be the case.

Regardless, I'm sure we will never know the real source of the leak, as long as the Ashcroft led Justice Department is on the case. At the very least, some poor low-level official in the administration will scapegoat this particular crime, taking the fall for following orders like some disposable hitman in the Gambino family, loyal to their boss to the bitter end.

One thing is for sure, this case needs to be handed over to an independent council, especially when the Justice Department is led by yet another Teddy Ruxpin loaded by the Administration with a mix-tape of lies. Regardless of who is responsible for this or the damage that has been done, the facts are there: Plame was exposed as a CIA operative, Novak was informed by an official in the administration, this is a serious crime. If there is something to Ambassador Wilson's claims, we cannot trust the Attorney General to out one of his own.