Only in Madison

From what I've read, there seem to be three primary takes on the rather delicious Karl Rove scandal:

1. Karl Rove did something very bad by outing C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame and thus endangering her life and the lives of other covert agents.

2. Karl Rove didn't do anything at all since he never actually used Plame's name.

3. Karl Rove did something very good by using Valerie Plame's identity to discredit an improper critique of the war effort.

This week's Isthmus adds a fourth interpretation.

4. Karl Rove did something very good by outing Plame -- because the C.I.A. is evil. Rove, suggests the Isthmus columnist, should be clapped "warmly on the back for his courageous onslaughts on the cult of secrecy" and its sixty years of "uninterrupted evil."

Huh. That's a new one.