This is the CIA Agent Exposed by Bush's Hacks

Photo souce: NYT 031607

Valerie Plame Wilson spoke publicly yesterday for the first time since her covert identity as a CIA agent was exposed by White House hacks in July 2003. She testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She’s said to be writing a book about her outing. If she didn’t have a movie deal when she woke up yesterday, she does now

The committee’s web site has video of the complete hearing. I’m still looking for the Congressional Record transcript.

Yesterday’s NYT coverage played the story pretty straight. NPR had the juicy sound bites and whirr of paparazzi cameras. YouTube has video clips from the hearing, including Plame’s opening statement. Firedoglake live-blogged it extensively;see Enter “The Wife” for starters . And Dana Milbank wrote the movie review.

Milbank noted that Plame’s platinum blonde hair revealed dark roots, always a telling detail in Washington politics. He built a riff around the number of times “passionately” popped out in the testimony. Sure, passion never hurt a movie deal, and Plame milked the media moment for everything it was worth. To do anything else would be Un-American.

NPR’s Andrea Seabrook was more charitable this morning. She understood that a big part of Valerie Plame’s allure stems from simple curiosity, finally, just to see her. She stayed out of the media spotlight for four years, letting her husband Joe Wilson do the talk shows. She famously appeared on a Vanity Fair cover wearing Jackie O sunglasses; otherwise, the public only got glimpses of her. The exaggeration-prone Washington gossip mill rumored that the elusive spy was “drop dead gorgeous,” Seabrook said. “This time the gossip mill got it right.”

Valerie Plame out-Oli-ied Oliver North in terms of stealing the show. All he had was a square jaw and Marine Corps dress blue. She’s a mix of 007 + blond bombshell.

It’s well-known that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and their fellow-travelers would start a war or sell their grandmothers for political gain. In the Plame case, they exposed a CIA agent then tried to cover it up. In retrospect, they should have sacrificed grandma.