Word twister

The AP story today on the leak from the White House that disclosed the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame has the White House saying that while President Bush declassified the sensitive information and authorized the public disclosure of it, he didn't specifically direct that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby be the one to get the information out there.

I guess it really does depend on what you definition of "is" is.

If President Bush thought declassifying the information was the right thing to do, why didn't he just put it out there himself instead of trying to get it into the press using staff?

Perhaps it's because his own father said this:

Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."-- George Herbert Walker Bush, 1999