A New Round of McCarthyism

'This is not somebody who's hoping to make $20,000 a day on the lecture circuit,' Mr. Cobb said. 'Going to war with the government is not high on her list.'"

The Washington Post: "Though McCarthy acknowledged having contact with reporters, a senior intelligence official confirmed yesterday that she is not believed to have played a central role in The Post's reporting on the secret prisons."

Balloon Juice has at least some sympathy for Ms. McCarthy:

"Congratulations to Mary McCarthy, this week's rightwing hate magnet. Whether or not she committed a crime remains to be seen, but you can practically smell the flopsweat as the rightwing blogosphere dances chanting around her burning effigy in an effort to drive away unpleasant visions of a fading party and a presidency sunk beyond repair.

"Don't get me wrong, McCarthy appears to have committed a breach of some sort (although she now denies it) and will likely face more retribution for her actions than simply losing her job. That is fine with me, as far as I am concerned anybody who breaks the law should be prepared to go to jail. If you broke the law for what you see as a good reason, fine, go to jail and feel good about it. Movement-wise jail did no harm to Martin Luther King or Ghandi. It is also fine with me if rightwingers want to spin elaborate theories in which every one of their hated enemies will get sucked into a web of conspiracy and go down en masse. Good luck with that guys, I'm sure that those Wilson indictments are just around the corner.

"Apparently among other crimes McCarthy gave money to the Democratic party. Score one for the Partisan Activist smear. . . .

"Another logical pretzel holds that America does not really disappear foreign suspects into gulag-style prisons that operate outside any sort of legal oversight, but McCarthy damaged American security by making people think that we do. Huh?"

Jos Cafe makes the inevitable Plame comparison:

"Scooter Libby is trashed in the press for something he didn't do, nor has he been indicted for: leaking the name of an in-active undercover CIA agent.

"Mary McCarthy admits to her bosses that she 'DID' leak information to the press and is fired. [This was pre-Newswek.]

"One is innocent.

"One is guilty.