Let’s see.  Where are we in the Republican defense of Rove?  Meme roll call:

First: “The White House had nothing to do with the leak of classified information.”

Second: “Okay, maybe the White House did have something to do with the leak, but nobody identified Valerie Plame by her actual name.”

Second and a half: “By the way, Plame had it coming because she married a big fat partisan liar.”

Third: “Okay, maybe the White House didn’t need to identify her by her actual name, but in any event, the White House learned about Plame’s CIA status from reporters—not the other way around.”

Third and a half:  “By the way, here’s some recycled evidence showing some links between Saddam and al Qaeda.  Can we revisit that debate?” [Alternative Glenn Reynolds meme: “This Plamegate issue is for too complicated for my tiny little brain"]

Fourth: “Okay, maybe the White House did reveal her CIA status to reporters, but even if someone did, it’s no big deal, because she wasn’t ‘covert’.”

Fourth and a half:  “Look who Bush nominated for the Supreme Court!”

Fifth: “Okay, maybe she was covert and perhaps a law was broken, but the law is stupid.”

Sixth: “It’s Clinton’s fault.”

(Okay, the last one hasn’t happened yet . . . but don’t be surprised)

I know in my heart that if, three years ago, I asked any conservative (or liberal, or moderate for that matter) if it is “okay” in a time of “war” for anybody (say, Michael Moore) to reveal the name of a CIA operative working on WMD issues, the universal consensus would have been “No.  Absolutely Not.  Hang the traitor from the highest yardarm”.  The continued defense of Bush’s advisors reveals one thing about diehard Bush supporters—they have no moral center.