Well, it's about freaking time.

Someone has finally taken interest in the Valerie Plame situation...although they've put John Ashcroft in charge of the investigation.

WASHINGTON Sept. 30 — The FBI began a full-scale criminal investigation Tuesday into whether White House officials illegally leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer, and President Bush ordered his staff to cooperate with the first major probe of his administration.

...Democratic leaders said Attorney General John Ashcroft was too close to the White House to conduct an impartial investigation. "We don't have confidence in John Ashcroft ... and we know without a doubt that somebody broke the federal law," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said, "If there ever was a case for the appointment of a special counsel, this is it."

If Valerie Plame sold real-estate or gratified the president orally (tee hee) then there would be a special council all over this situation. But no, her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, only exposed the president as a big fat liar, so that's not a big deal.

Mr. Wilson has publicly accused presidential adviser Karl Rove of revealing his wife's identify. The motive, according to Wilson, was revenge for his own role in exposing as probably wrong the White House claim that Saddam Hussein sought yellowcake uranium from Niger.

Over at Open Source Politics, Mark A.R. Kleiman has a pretty definitive series of posts on this scandal...go read!

And don't forget to register to vote! We can take the country back from these chowderheads!