When Hillary Clinton appointed Marc Grossman as US Special Envoy News coverage of the appointment dutifully noted Grossman’s long career at the State Department and past accomplishments, including his appointment as Career Ambassador by President Bush in 2004 and his Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award in 2005.
We all know the official story of Plamegate by now: the Bush administration, angry at ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson’s op-ed accusing the White House of “twisting the evidence” to lead the country into war with Iraq, leaked his wife’s identity as a CIA agent to journalist Robert Novak, who then revealed it in the Washington Post. After a lengthy investigation, “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s Chief of Staff, was convicted for obstruction of justice and Richard Armitage took the fall for leaking the name in the first place.