Valerie Plame - Desk Jockey?

More than one conservative pundit has said so, the implication being that her outing just wasn't that big of a deal.

Now, however, a bipartisan group of 11 former intelligence officials has released a letter vigorously disputing those claims. The group argues that the leak did indeed harm national security, and that those who say otherwise reveal an "astonishing ignorance" of how the intelligence community works.

Thanks to the Center for American Progress for highlighting the letter. I've already said I find the Plame leak distasteful, regardless of whether it was a crime. The current Republican strategy, which seems to be to argue that Plame just wasn't very important anyway, strikes me as more distasteful still. It's also a bit inconsistent: the initial campaign to discredit Wilson was built on the idea that his powerful CIA wife had gotten him the trip to Niger. Now the argument is that his wife really didn't do much at Langley so she can be outed with no damage?

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