Sunday’s editorial (“Administration’s ethics could use some polish”) focused on the non-leak of the identity of a non-secret CIA desk jockey (who is married to Joseph Wilson, a political enemy of the president) as a crisis of ethics in the White House. Your editorial disregards the ethics of telling the whole truth that makes this a non-story. The left goes bonkers at the thought that The Evil Genius, Karl Rove, may be left alone to help the poor dim-bulb president implement the programs we elected him for.

I hope The Herald will report more facts before claiming Wilson makes “declarations of truth” or that CIA agent Valerie Plame was outed by Rove.

Wilson claimed he wrote a report of his Niger trip: Lie – he was debriefed by the CIA. He claimed Vice President Dick Cheney sent him to Niger: Lie – Cheney never heard of him. He claimed his wife was not involved in his trip appointment: Lie – she twice wrote to her superiors pitching him.

He claims no proof of Iraq’s intent to purchase uranium; however, the CIA analysts who heard Wilson’s oral report wrote that it “lent more credibility to the original CIA reports on the uranium deal.” Wilson supported Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech until months later, when he was hired by the John Kerry campaign to misrepresent his own findings and suddenly become outraged.

Plame told neighbors that she worked at the CIA. She contributed to Gore’s 2000 campaign. The CIA did not object to Plame’s name being published in Robert Novak’s column.

Since Plame was a year past the statute protecting any covert status, it seems highly unlikely that Rove outed her.

Please work on telling the whole truth when making politically-loaded accusations to readers who know some of what’s being left out. It’s another nail in the coffin of mainstream media and that’s a shame.

Bill Thornton

Marysville