Now that the identity of the Plamegate leaker (Richard Armitage) has become public, the matter should be just about over. All that remains is for President Bush to take some action to deal with the fact that the rogue investigation went on for years despite the fact that the identity of the leaker as known very early on and it was clear that there was no violation of the law.

I like these suggestions.

I’m so livid at this tangible and intangible harm that I cannot imagine that the President doesn’t share my fury at such damaging perfidy. If I were advising him, here’s what I’d tell him:

(1) He should have Attorney General Gonzales report to him everything the Department knows of the Armitage revelations and when they occurred to ascertain whether any of the Isikoff-Corn report is false.

2) Former Secretary Powell should be summoned and asked when he learned of the Armitage admission and why he failed to report this to him.

(3) If the reports that he knew in September 2003 that Armitage was the leaker prove true, the President should publicly say that he is deeply disappointed in the conduct of the former State Department officials, that he doesn’t question their belief that the Armitage leaks were inadvertent but that there failure to notify him of those leaks was inexcusable.

(4) If the facts indicate that former Attorney General Ashcroft and Comey knew who Novak’s source was, the President should indicate his disappointment in them for having yielded to the press frenzy in appointing a special prosecutor rather than simply having the courage to tell what happened and why.

(5) He should express regret to the country for this unnecessary and longstanding distraction occasioned by these failures.

(6) He should express special regret to Scooter Libby and his family who have been forced to endure so much for no reason whatsoever.

(7) Finally, he should express disappointment in the unprofessional conduct of the Special Prosecutor who misled the public and the Courts, among other things, and he should announce that he is instructing the Atttorney General to dismiss Fitzgerald and drop the case against Libby.

I'd personally take matters a bit further -- I'd suggest a full pardon for Libby, whose "crime" appears to be nothing more than a discrepancy between his memory and written records of events that happened at least two years earlier.

Heck -- I wonder if there is a basis for a special prosecutor to investigate the cover-up of the leaker's identity by State Department (and possibly Justice Department) officials, and the prosecutorial abuses of Patrick Fitzgerald. And when the indictments are handed down against those who have perpetrated this fraud on the American people, it will be a Merry Fitzmas indeed.