It seems that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby, and their ilk have gotten out of an important habit. What habit is that? Take this cue from Aristotle: The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

It took a while, but Bush’s White House is finally beginning to take the fall for leaking the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame as retaliation for Plane’s husband’s outspoken criticism of the lies Bush told in order to justify the Iraq war. It begins with Dick Cheney’s right-hand man, Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who resigned this morning following an indictment on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury, among others. If Cheney and Karl Rove themselves come out of this unscathed, it will be yet another testament to their excessive talent for lies and obfuscation. Of course, politicos on the right like to call the investigation into the leak “partisanship,” but I imagine that those agents whose lives and careers were endangered by the leak–Republicans included–would agree across the board that disclosing the identity of an undercover agent is unethical at best, murderous at worst. Such a leak is a direct attack upon national security interests, a highly suspect act at any time in the life of a nation, nothing short of outrageous at a time when the administration rules by instilling fear in the hearts of the citizenry–fear of terrorists and “liberals” and all things that might go bump in the night. Bush won the election in large part on the premise that he would keep the nation safe; meanwhile, the top policy-makers of his own administration were employing loose lips to disclose information of importance to national security.

The leak and its cover-up serve as evidence of just how far this White House is willing to go in setting aside moral, ethical, and humanitarian considerations in order to justify its passion for war.

If this is the party of the “moral majority,” then Americans have a strange concept indeed of morality.