Mr. Vice President
After an eternity of obscurity, hiding in undisclosed locations, and generally doing everything possible to make himself invisible, Dick Cheney emerges from the shadows to defend the administration on Iraq. And to make public remarks at campaign events. And to take some obvious hits on his Halliburton connection (too many links to even start with that -- you know it is true.

Now let us shift gears for a moment. The White House "has said three people were not sources for the leak: Mr. Rove; I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staf; and Elliott Abrams, director of Mideast affairs at the National Security Council." thereby drawing increased attention to those three. Well, not really. The increased attention goes to Mr. Libby and Mr. Abrams; Mr. Rove was already getting plenty of attention on this matter.

What do these two events have in common? Hrm, a cynical mind might think that both of them were designed to draw attention away from The Man Behind The Curtain, one Mr. Rove. Yes, yes, Mr. Rove had been experiencing more individualized attention than at any time in his career that I can recall. His picture was becoming seen more often than that of his marionette. And I have always gotten the impression that Mr. Rove does not like the spotlight one little bit. So what better way to divert attention away from himself than to shine it on someone already widely loathed and mistrusted?

Naaah, they would never do anything like that.