The other day I offered evidence that the Al Qaeda mole may have been outed by Pakistan, not the U.S. Now Mickey Kaus offers a wealth of even more recent evidence supporting that theory. Kaus goes back to the original New York Times story on the mole, which said:

An account provided by a Pakistani intelligence official made clear that the crucial capture in recent weeks had been that of Mr. Khan, who is also known as Abu Talha.

Notes Kaus:

The story seems to be almost explicitly pointing to Pakistani sources — not American officials — as the ones who first gave out Khan’s name.

Kaus also notes that Condi Rice’s office has backed off of Rice’s apparent admission to Wolf Blitzer that the Administration gave out the mole’s name on background.

Interesting that, while Kevin Drum leapt on Rice’s apparent admission two days ago, he has been silent on the mole story ever since. No word as to what Drum thinks of the evidence I previously provided, or what he thinks of Kaus’s arguments — all of which, taken together, make a fairly compelling case that Pakistan may have been the party at fault here. I guess that wouldn’t have the same appeal for the Bush-haters . . .

It’s been a week since I sent Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Finnegan a letter asking how he could have missed the story about John Kerry’s failed Marine photo-op at Wendy’s. (For more, see Comments Off

Captain Ed and Beldar continue to smack John Kerry around with elegant brutality.

Nick Kristof here and here.)

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: if John Kerry would do a better job with this — which is not unthinkable given how little Bush has done — that’s a significant factor for people to look at in deciding between Bush and Kerry.

When I said this before, my conservative friends criticized me, saying that there is no reason to think Kerry would be any better. Fair enough. Hence the word “if.” But you know what? I’m sick of the complacency. Bush needs to damn well start taking the simple steps necessary to combat this obvious menace.

As I’ve discussed here before, the steps to take are straightforward. Kristof says he’ll discuss these steps in his next column.

UPDATE: Michael Williams has a different take.