How and Why Ari Fleischer got his "Do Not Go To Jail Card"

Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus testified in court this morning that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, not Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was the first person to tell him that a Joseph C. Wilson IV, a prominent critic of the Iraq war was married to undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Testifying as the first defense witness at Libby's perjury trial, Pincus for the first time publicly disclosed the confidential source inside the White House who told him in 2003 that the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV worked at the CIA on matters relating to weapons of mass destruction.

NOW we know why he reached for his lawyer immediately Valerie Plame's identity became public knowledge ... why he left the White House ... and why he has kept his head down since and why a he copped a plea.

It also illustrates the traffic between the Executive and the Press - as if we didn't know it.

Of course in the UK there is no such thing as "plea bargaining" (Ho.Ho.Ho.) so nobody can possibly hope to have saved their skin and a visit to Her Majesties overflowing hotels by undertaking such a move. Would they ?.. and leave the Karaoke King in the ordure ? As if.