Noted.

THE SPOKESMAN SPEAKS: What Scott McClellan wrote in his new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, about the Administration's propaganda campaign to promote and defend the occupation of Iraq was not a revelation. It was confirmation that the White House has played fast and loose with the truth in a time of war. Depending on how one reads the Constitution, that may or may not be an impeachable offense. But McClellan's assertion that top presidential aides, perhaps with the cooperation of the Vice President, conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the plot to destroy the reputation of former Ambassador Joe Wilson, a critic of the rush to war, and his wife, former CIA agent Valerie Plame, demands a response from Congress.

When White House insiders leak classified information, manipulate media coverage and otherwise employ their immense power to punish dissenters, Congress does not have any other option. It has a constitutional duty to check and balance an errant executive branch. That the former White House spokesman--with his claim that the President said he authorized the selective release of classified information to reporters covering the Wilson story--links the wrongdoing directly to Bush ups the ante even further. Florida Congressman Bob Wexler, the House Judiciary Committee's most ardent advocate of executive accountability, is right when he says, "Scott McClellan must now appear before the House Judiciary Committee under oath to tell Congress and the American people how President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and White House officials deliberately orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people." Wexler, who has campaigned for the opening of impeachment hearings against Cheney, knows there are plenty of top Democrats who would prefer that Congress go quiet in this election year. But he also recognizes that if a system that relies on a clear separation of powers is to survive, the evidence of deceit and lawlessness by the Bush/Cheney Administration "cannot be tolerated by this Congress."   JOHN NICHOLS

IRAQ INDEX, PART TWO: Number of US Embassy employees in Baghdad: 1,000

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