NEWS PLUS: How could he think that?

(Wash. Post 10-2)

...At the same time, administration allies outside the White House stepped up a counteroffensive that seeks to discredit the administration's main accuser, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife was named as a CIA operative. Republican National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Ed Gillespie gave a string of television interviews with the three-part message that the Justice Department is investigating, that the White House is fully cooperating and that Wilson has a political agenda and has made "rash statements."

"He is someone, given his politics, who is obviously prone to think the worst of this White House," Gillespie said by telephone.

PLUS. "Sheer ingratitude. His wife is now free, with the right kind of personal security, to pursue a rewarding career in Hotel-Motel Management."