One could say, as the president's press secretary roughly has, that the White House could spend all day every day trying to track down every anonymous source quoted in every newspaper--it's a huge number.
True. But the president and/or his communications staff are well aware of most leaks attributed to "senior administration officials." This president runs a tight ship. Senior administration officials don't routinely leak without believing they have permission or leeway. There are few "senior administration official" leaks that the President would read about in the paper in the morning that would shock him.
Presumably, this leak is one of those few--in fact, one would think it was the most shocking leak yet attributed to his own administration. He surely didn't authorize it (right?) and upon finding out about it he thought it was a disgraceful violation of national security--originating, apparently, right in his own backyard.
So...why didn't he effing do anything?
That's the story. The story is that he apparently didn't do anything upon learning about a shocking breach of national security possibly committed by his own senior officials. He apparently didn't even try to find out if it was true. He waited until he was forced into allowing the Justice Department to conduct an investigation--three months after he knew about the possible violation on his own turf.
What did the President know? That a major national-security violation was possibly committed from within his administration. When did he know it? Almost surely, July 14.
What did he do? So far, it looks like the answer is...nothing.
Why?
[Mark A.R. Kleiman's excellent roundup is at Open Source Politics.]
[Oh, and Josh Marshall encouraged the President to pick up the telephone (it's that thing with the little pushy buttons on it, George) in The Hill way back on June 30.]
Article comments
1 - Steve Rhodes
But remember Bush doesn't actually read articles. Perhaps Condi neglected to brief him on it.
2 - Brian Flemming
You make a good point.
I wonder if that statement in the Fox interview that he doesn't read "opinion" pieces was planned to support his future claim of ignorance about the Novak piece.
But, of course, if Condi did in fact fail to brief him on it (in the context of, say, requesting a freaking investigation of the apparent breach of her department) for so much as a day, let alone 76 days or so, she'd deserve to be fired.
Of course, Bush almost certainly knew about this whole thing on July 14. But I wonder if he'll claim not to have known for much longer. He's told bigger lies.