Just for the record, I think that reviving the independent counsel statute and appointing one for the Plame affair would be a bad idea. I think that it needs to be thoroughly investigated, but I don’t believe that we’re any more likely to get a fair and thorough investigation from an independent counsel than we will get from the Justice Department. That’s probably because in my experience, independent counsel appointments have been horrible failures? Can anyone point to one that’s been a success? If the Clinton case is too politicized to bring up, then take a look at the sad case of Mike Espy. He was acquitted in 1998 after a multi-year investigation that cost millions of dollars (and left Espy millions of dollars in debt due to legal bills). If you believe that Espy was innocent, then you have to wonder what good the costly investigation did us. If you think he was guilty, then you can’t be pleased that it failed. I think that the Plame affair demands a fair and full investigation, but I don’t think that we’re any more likely to get one from an independent counsel than we are from the Justice Department.