Three questions for President Bush

At Thursday's meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, President Bush was the invited speaker. Most of his time was devoted to a defense of his administration's extreme secretiveness:

''We look forward to analyzing and working with legislation that would help put a free press' mind at ease that you're not being denied information you shouldn't see,'' said Bush, offering living proof that, while double negatives can be tricky enough, triple negatives simply shouldn't be undertaken by amateurs.

''I will tell you, though," Bush continued, "I am worried about things getting in the press that puts people's lives at risk. It's that judgment about what would put someone's life at risk and what doesn't is where there's tension.''

So here are three questions for the president:

1. Mr. President, two reporters are currently facing jail time for refusing to give up sources in the Valerie Plame case. In the nearly two years since as-yet-unnamed White House sources leaked that story, probably illegally, to Robert Novak, why haven't you demonstrated the integrity of your administration by simply ordering the person(s) responsible to step forward, since they work for you?


2. Mr. President, last winter it was revealed that your administration was paying journalists, and actors pretending to be journalists, to create propaganda for your policies in the guise of legitimate news reporting. Syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams was paid nearly a quarter million dollars by the Department of Education to talk up the underfunded No Child Left Behind program. Why have you allowed the Secretary of Education to interfere with the investigation of this matter by having administration officials with knowledge of the case to be "put off limits to interviewers"?
   


3. Mr. President, why are security agents converging on my seat with handcuffs and a hypodermic syringe?