What's more important, national security or political advantage?

Sometimes timing seems to be everything. Things got pretty hot for the Administration last week and earlier this week, with Gonzalez spending the whole day in the hot seat and even Republican Heather Wilson demanding that they come clean. Of course, the Bushies can't talk about any of this because it's all hush-hush, any disclosure puts our people at risk, you're a traitor if you even talk about it.

And then, what happens? Well, first they supposedly brief the House Intelligence Committee on their spying activities. (And don't you love the way they keep calling it a "program"? Do they think it makes it look better if they call "doing whatever the hell they feel like, no matter what the law says" a "program"?) Then, today, Bush tells us this new story about foiling a terror plot back in 2002. Of course, I have no knowledge if this story is true, although the fact that Bush is saying something is at least one piece of evidence that it isn't.

My real point, though, is that these secrets were so vital to the survival of the Republic until they became politically inconvenient, and now all of a sudden they can let a little bit leak out to release some of the pressure. Is this as transparent to everyone else as it is to me?