my pet scapegoat bites hand that feeds him

Who told Scooter Libby to leak “relevant portions” of the NIE justifying war in Iraq to Judy Miller back in July ’03? Why, according to last night’s filing by Patrick Fitzgerald, it was President George W. Bush.

That’s right, President George “There’s just too many leaks, and if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is” Bush.

I know, shocked. . . shocked. . . but here it is in black and white. (More from Think Progress, firedoglake, and Murray Waas.)

Of course, the White House (if they dare) will argue that the President has the right to declassify a National Intelligence Estimate if he wants. . . but that didn’t happen till a week or two later. . . this was Libby, at Bush’s direction, selectively leaking parts of the estimate that supported the Administration’s position (there were parts that most certainly did not) to a confederate in the media in order to counter accusations made by Joseph Wilson a few days earlier.

Of course, you’d think the rest of the media would want to know more about this development. You’d think they would want to ask Scott McClellan about this revelation at the morning briefing. You’d think.