Former CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly unveiled their lawsuit against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in a Washington press conference today. But while the Wilson's action offers the potential to bring President Bush's "Politics of Payback" under the microscope, its prospects for success seem remote.
That seems to be the early consensus, even among those sympathetic to the view that the Bush administration outed Plame as part of full-fledged war to discredit the claims in Joseph Wilson's now famous July 6, 2003 op-ed on bogus claims that Iraq sought uranium in Niger. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin described the Wilsons' chances in court as an "extreme long shot." Appearing on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Lawrence O'Donnell was similarly pessimistic. O'Donnell argued both that the Wilsons' recent high profile public presence ran counter to their claims of lost privacy and that existing legal regimes surrounding whistleblower protections did not seem to apply to their civil action. Yale's Akhil Amar concurred with the view that past decisions involving whistle-blower protections and the executive branch simply may not apply. George Washington University's Jonathan Turley seconded that opinion, "The key is going to be whether they can overcome the threshold constitutional issues -- whether the Vice President is immune from this type of lawsuit." Even Christy Hardin Smith of the blog FireDogLake grudgingly acknowledged that the text of the Wilson complaint seemed "political."
Whatever its chances of success, the Wilson lawsuit reflects the moral imperative of demanding accountability of a Bush administration that in act of pure political vengence destroyed the careers of and sought to impugn the reputation of dedicated American civil servants. In her press conference today, Valerie Plame summed it up succinctly:

"I would much rather be continuing my career as a public servant than be a plaintiff in a lawsuit, but I feel strongly and justice demands that those who acted so harmfully against our national security must answer for the shameful conduct in court."

For more on the Wilsons' lawsuit and the latest news, legal documents, timelines and other essential materials, visit Perrspectives' PlameGate Scandal Resource Center.