Here is the Bush Administration’s M.O. in summary: Two of its top officials who are suspected of deliberately revealing the identity of a CIA operative are receiving pay hikes:

“The top pay for senior White House aides, including Chief of Staff [Andy] Card, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Legislative Affairs Director Candida Wolff, was boosted to $161,000 at the beginning of July, according to a list sent to Congress and obtained by National Journal.” – Congress Daily

Amongst the others receiving the bump: Stephen Hadley, Scooter Libby. The era of personal responsibility is dead! Long live the era of personal responsibility!

A raise is even better than the Medal of Freedom or whatever it was George Tenet got after he resigned as head of the CIA. But then again all Tenet had done was go to sleep at the switch prior to the 9/11 attacks, bungle the pre-war intelligence about Iraq and fail to convince President Bush not to lie about Saddam’s nuclear capability in the 2003 State of the Union speech.

Had he disrupted the spy agency’s espionage on trafficking in the equipment and ingredients required to make nuclear bombs, he could have kept his job – and gotten a raise, too.