Another CIA Leak Probe?

Andrew Sullivan, one of the first bloggers to gain a wide following online, is moving his daily musings to the Time Inc. Web site, which plans to build a cyber-neighborhood around him and other bloggers.

And Furthermore . . .

The war over the war on WMD is ratcheting up, and National Review Editor Rich Lowry doesn't think much of the Democratic position:

"Getting suckered usually is not a sign of good judgment. On the contrary, it's something to be embarrassed by. But Democrats are making the contention that they were told lies prior to the Iraq war, and believed them, central to their party's identity.

"They are caught between their base's conviction that President Bush lied about Iraq and the fact that the cream of the party voted to authorize the war. Nearly every Democratic senator who has higher ambitions voted 'yes' -- Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, John Kerry, and John Edwards. If Bush lied, it stands to reason that they are all naifs, foolishly drawn to the seductions of a charlatan. They aren't statesmen; they're victims.

"Some of the 'aye' votes make this argument themselves. 'He misled every one of us,' Sen. Kerry charges. Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, since retired, agrees: 'We were misled.' The talented New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who voted for the war in the House, explains, 'If you believe that people like me and [Sens.] Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton drew the wrong conclusion at the time, well, that's true of a lot of Americans who were deceived by this president.'

"Surely, however, these Democrats don't rely on Bush exclusively for their information. In a demolition of the Bush-lied argument in the current issue of Commentary magazine, Norman Podhoretz recalls the other players who warned of Saddam Hussein's WMDs. Democrats could have consulted Bill Clinton, who had talked of the 'threat posed by Iraq's weapons-of-mass-destruction program.' They could have read the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that maintained 'Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding, its chemical, biological, nuclear and missile programs.' They could have asked the State Department. . . .

"Dick Polman, a political reporter for Knight-Ridder News, reminds us that Republican George Romney damaged his presidential bid in 1968 by claiming he had been deceived by the military into supporting the Vietnam War. Voters weren't looking for a president who could, by his own account, be easily misled. Gullibility is not a leadership trait."

At Media Bistro , Garrett Graff questions the Judy Miller rationale:

"In her comments to media this week, everyone comes out for blame--her editors, her sources, her employer, the government, and a whole lot of blame falls on Maureen Dowd--but she seems to skip the blame herself: 'Oh well, my sources were wrong and my editors, who hate the truth and freedom, kept me from pursuing what actually went on. I was stuck in the middle. Sorry folks for this whole "war" thing.'

'As she said Thursday night, 'I did not use The New York Times to lobby for the Iraq war -- it would have been inappropriate.' Sorry, 'inappropriate' makes it sound like she skipped accepting a free meal from a publicist or tickets to a Knicks game. SHE HELPED LAUNCH A WAR."

Judy did have some help, didn't she?

Arianna is still on the Ahmad beat: