A new enemy of the state

I've been waiting since last autumn for this to happen, and now the moment has arrived:
The inevitable attack on special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
Now even this Republican appointee, who was named to his sleuth job by the Bush Justice Department, has been denounced as an enemy of the state.
The denouncers left him alone while he investigated whether the Bush administration was responsible for outing a CIA employe who was married to Joseph Wilson, a critic of the war in Iraq. The denouncers left him alone even after he indicted vice-presidential aide Scooter Libby.
But they can't leave him alone now, because he is striking too close to the seat of power.
In court papers last week, Fitzgerald depicted a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" to use classified information in an effort to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" Wilson.
Right on cue, here's conservative analyst William Kristol, on Fox News yesterday:
"I now think the whole prosecution (of Libby) is absurd. And I have hesitated to say this, because I have friends who respect Fitzgerald, but I now think it’s a politically motivated attempt to wound the Bush administration...He is now out to discredit the Bush administration. He has bought the argument that there is something improper about the Bush administration responding to Joe Wilson’s charges, and that’s the real meaning of what’s happened these last few days, which is very dangerous for the Bush administration. They now have a special prosecutor out not to convict Scooter Libby, but out to discredit the administration."
Meanwhile, three retired and highly decorated military leaders, including a three-star Marine Corps general yesterday, have publicly assailed the administration's handling of the Iraq war, and have publicly called for the removal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. I await the inevitable attacks on their motivations and characters.