Dear David Broder, I'm sorry.

The dean of the beltway punditocracy speaks:

No one behaved well in the whole mess -- not Wilson, not Libby, not special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and not the reporters involved.

I'm surprised he doesn't include Valerie Plame on that list. After all, she had the poor manners to lose her cover and her job as a result.

The White House talking points are all there. I find especially fascinating that Broder finds Fitzgerald guilty of "bad behavior." Here's a diligent prosecutor who doesn't engage in tactical leaks to the press and who hasn't spent millions of tax payer dollars on the search for a black cocktail dress.

Instead, here's a diligent prosecutor who smelled a rat -- a conspiracy by the most powerful men in the U.S. government to silence a political foe. That's bad behavior? Expect to hear more of attempts, in David Johnston's words, to "wreck Patrick Fitzgerald" -- it's a tough case for the White House to make, but they will try.

Further, it might be helpful if Broder thought this through a wee bit. It's not news that Armitage was a source of the leak; my guess he was set up to deliver it. The Plame intelligence was "carelessly" left lying about on Airforce One specifically -- in my humble opinion -- for Powell to read it. Cheney, Libby, and Rove wanted the leak to come from "not a partisan gunslinger" as Novak put it. Remember, Armitage was not indicted because he was unaware that Plame was undercover and because he never lied about his contact with Novak. Unlike Libby and Rove.

I realize I'm being fitted for a new tinfoil hat, but unlike crack investigative journalist Broder, this kind of thing strikes me as odd.

Mr. Armitage spoke with Mr. Novak on July 8, 2003, those familiar with Mr. Armitage’s actions said. Mr. Armitage did not know Mr. Novak, but agreed to meet with the columnist as a favor for a mutual friend, Kenneth M. Duberstein, a White House chief of staff during Ronald Reagan’s administration. At the conclusion of a general foreign policy discussion, Mr. Armitage said in reply to a question that Ms. Wilson might have had a role in arranging her husband’s trip to Niger.

At the time of the offhand conversation about the Niger trip, Mr. Armitage was not aware of Ms. Wilson’s undercover status, those familiar with his actions said. The mention of Ms. Wilson was brief. Mr. Armitage did not believe he used her name, those aware of his actions said.

Makes you wonder doesn't it? But not David Broder. For him, all such speculation is evidence of the bad behavior of "Rove's foes."

As evidence of more of my bad behavior, I will conclude with this: David Broder is Wanker of the Day.

UPDATED to fix the link.