So now we have confirmation that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief assistant set out to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson by secretly telling reporters his wife worked for the CIA -- and then repeatedly lied about it during a federal criminal investigation.

When George W. Bush assured us during the 2000 campaign that Cheney "is a man of integrity and sound judgment, who has proven that public service can be noble service," I doubt this is what Americans were expecting.

Nor does it quite jibe with what Bush and Cheney promised about the tone they would set. Cheney lamented that under Clinton, Washington had "often become a scene of bitterness and ill will and partisan strife." In accepting the Republican nomination, Bush confided, "I want to change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect." How are we coming on that project?