EDITORIAL - 22 months and millions of US tax-payer dollars later, the Valerie Plame-CIA leak case ends with not the roar of a lion and the speculated ten indictments against Bush administration officials for their ?culture of corruption?, not with charges against DNC public enemy #1 Karl Rove, or the pipe-dream resignation of Dick Cheney, but rather with the squeak of a mouse and the sought indictment of one?Chief of staff for VP Dick Cheney, ?Scooter? Libby.

It appears that he is not being indicted for ?outing? a CIA NOC, the original basis for the entire investigation. But rather for telling the Grand Jury that he originally learned Valerie Plame?s name from a reporter, when it is alleged that he instead learned it first from the VP himself.

Two White House officials with security clearance discussing secure information is not exactly a unique event, let alone a crime. It also goes without saying that nobody could have leaked anything had someone in the CIA itself not leaked it first. Surely, it wasn?t Tenet himself. After all, he was a Clinton appointee, not a member of the ?culture of corruption?.

It would have helped if the CIA employee at the center of the investigation had actually been under-cover at the time of the alleged outing. It also would have helped if the investigation had been able to find any credible witnesses instead of working a case entirely dependent upon the word of one Joe Wilson, a man with literally no credibility in the real world at all.

But stay tuned?

Less than thirty days into the investigation, Prosecutor Fitzgerald requested authority to expand the investigation beyond its initial intent. 22 months later, with one half-baked indictment for an alleged secondary infraction of a crime there is no evidence ever existed, the Prosecutor is once again requesting authority to expand the investigation even further.

In case you haven?t been paying attention, all roads lead to the relentless pursuit of Bush administration officials who liberals have repeatedly accused of ?lying? us into a war in Iraq. Hence, the second request in the 22 month old investigation to expand the depth and breadth of the investigation once more.

Yet after 22 months, it is pretty clear that if any reasonable evidence existed to support the original purpose of the investigation, it surely would have been uncovered by now. I mean, they took every opportunity up until the eleventh hour here, and this is what they have?

Frankly, any Prosecution team that couldn?t uncover the evidence of a real crime by now either ain?t much of a prosecution team, or they ain?t working with much of a crime?take your pick!

Bottom line, only those who think Martha Stewart is a hardened criminal who belongs behind bars will see this as anything less than a complete failure to make a real case.

Well, let?s face it. After 22 months and millions of dollars, somebody was going to be charged with something.

Instead of appearing to be the massive ?culture of corruption? democrat fund-raisers made it out to be, (with the help of their friends in the press of course, thank you Chris Mathews), this one has the appearance of an eleventh hour indictment aimed at justifying a 22 month old investigation going nowhere.

The liberal so-called mainstream press has spent all day - every day for the last two weeks building this case into a crescendo based on the ?culture of corruption? drummed into the hearts and minds of liberal Bush-hating democrat minions. For what? One indictment for a secondary allegation in a crime that apparently never happened? You must be kidding me!

Of course when Clinton ?crony? and Kerry National Security Advisor Sandy Burger was ?convicted? of stealing TOP SECRET documents stuffed in his shorts from the national archives, the so-called main-stream press didn?t give it a seconds notice even on the back page.

But just watch how fast they convict, draw and quarter and tar and feather Scooter Libby over the coming days and weeks.