POLITICIZED NATIONAL SECURITY, CIRCA 2003. Yesterday, I was traveling back from my unsuccessful effort to -- no joke -- talk to Al Gore at the Governor's Ball (he didn't show before I left), so I missed the excitement in the Scooter Libby trial over the juror who got booted for exposure to media coverage of the trial and the happy reaction from the defense. (For what it's worth, I got the very strong impression from Sunday night that Gore will not be running for president -- who needs the hassle when you're on an inexorable march to sainthood?)
While I was traveling, I had a chance to look back over Libby's grand jury testimony, and was struck again by just how involved, in ways that continue to surprise, Cheney was in the politicization of national security in July 2003. A small but interesting example that didn't even come up at the trial concerns a topic I have discussed before: Libby and Cheney's story that they were really concerned with the declassification of the October 2002 NIE, and not at all with the disclosure of Plame's CIA identity.
