SPIN SUNDAY MAY BE TRUTH SUNDAY TODAY: NEWT, McCAIN, LIBBY, AND, OF COURSE, PARIS HILTON

Looks like today is going to be a day for truth telling. Newt Gingrich, someone who never participates in those kinds of days, got the ball rolling yesterday when he told the American Enterprise Institute that McCain blew his shot at winning the GOP nomination because of his work on Bush's failed immigration legislation. McCain, another one who hasn't drunk from the cup of Truth in a few years, acknowledged to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that the Newtster may well be correct.

I may have mentioned before how the Republican Insider Establishment has saddled up their whole cavalry to destroy Patrick Fitzgerald and muddy the waters so much on the Libby case that Bush can get the political confusion and cover he needs to grant Scooter the pardon necessary to keep Cheney and Rove from being indicted-- like here, here and here. But this morning's Washington Post decided to throw a roadblock in front of them: some truth. Carol Leonnig, who's been covering the case for them, outlines some of the GOP talking points and explains why they are patently false. The big one, which those most prone to dittoheadness have already worked into their DNA, is that Valerie Plame wasn't a covert operative.

Wrong. She was.

Granted, this wasn't so clear at the start of Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation, so Libby's allies argued that the beans he spilled weren't that important to begin with. In fact, many of the officials who knew about her classified CIA status kept mum, which let Libby's pals jump to assert that she wasn't an undercover operative at the time of the leak.

But a CIA "unclassified summary" of Plame's career, released in court filings before Libby's June 5 sentencing, puts this one to rest: The CIA considered her covert at the time her identity was leaked to the media. The CIA report said that Plame had worked overseas in the previous five years and that the agency had been taking "affirmative measures" to conceal her CIA employment. That echoes the language used in the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which makes it a crime to reveal the identities of covert CIA officers.

When Libby was convicted, some conservative pundits complained that Fitzgerald had presented no compelling evidence at trial that Plame was covert. But that wasn't for lack of evidence; it was because Libby's lawyers convinced the court to bar any mention of her status during the trial, arguing that evidence suggesting that her job was classified would have been "unfairly prejudicial" to their client.

The CIA isn't famous for its clarity, but it's being pretty blunt on this issue: Langley says she was covert. Which other spook bureaucracy do you need to ask?

Another good one that Hannity, O'Reilly and the Hate Talk Radio Amen Choir can never get enough of hearing themselves repeat is that Libby didn't actually leak Plame's identity. Leonnig is as tired as hearing that lie as the rest of us are.

Libby wasn't charged with the crime of knowingly leaking classified information about Plame; he was charged with lying to investigators. But the overwhelming weight of the evidence at the trial-- including reporters' notes of their interviews with Libby-- showed that Libby had indeed leaked classified information about Plame's identity, even though that wasn't what put him in the dock. The jury agreed that Libby lied when he said that he'd been telling reporters only what other reporters had told him about Plame's role at the CIA.

What is unclear is whether Libby knew she was a covert CIA agent at the time he discussed her with reporters-- a key point in determining whether this was an illegal leak. But Walton said that Libby "had a unique and special obligation" to keep such secrets, well, secret.

It's not as good as your garden variety Firedoglake analysis, but it's not bad... for the Sunday Post.

Now we'll have to see if Scooter will be as much a man as Paris Hilton-- after some weeping, screaming, kicking and general hysteria-- turned into today. "Today, I told my attorneys not to appeal the judge's decision," Hilton said in a statement posted on TMZ.com. "While I greatly appreciate the sheriff's concern for my health and welfare, after meeting with doctors I intend to serve my time as ordered by the judge." You think we'll ever hear those words from her Inside the Beltway doppleganger?