Like most everybody else in the blogosphere this morning, I’ve been reading about the “Plame affair”:http://www.calpundit.com/archives/002263.html. It’s potentially an enormous story – if the facts are as they “appear to be”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11208-2003Sep27.html, there are at least two senior White House officials who deserve to be hauled off to jail. But I’m disturbed by the tone of triumphalism coming from a few left blogs and their commenters. It’s understandable that some see this as an opportunity to stick it to the warbloggers. It’s still a mistake. This story is too important to be turned into a cheap gotcha. There’s a growing groundswell of outrage on the right as well as the left. People should be building on this, rather than using the affair to score short-term ‘told you so’ points. If nothing else, a more constructive attitude will make it more likely that the story will stick around, and receive the sustained public attention that it obviously deserves.

Update: See also Kevin Drum’s “plea to conservatives”:http://www.calpundit.com/archives/002264.html – angry, but carefully worded and targetted.

Update 2: But of course, some will never be convinced … for a sampling, see “Belle Waring”:http://examinedlife.typepad.com/johnbelle/2003/09/is_not.html