The following letter was issued by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to the Republican chairmen of the respective intelligence committees in the House and Senate regarding hearings they plan to hold on the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson :

"It is my understanding that both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees intend to conduct hearings on our nation's intelligence agencies and the use of covert agents. While I applaud your Committee's efforts to investigate the Plame affair, I urge you to not provide an opportunity for any wrongdoers to escape culpability for criminal actions that may have put our national security at risk...read on"

It would be a clever ploy to grant all the guilty parties a free pass, but it will not diminish the embarrassment to this administration and to the GOP as a whole if they try to use that trick. The country will ultimately know the truth and I don't think they will take too kindly to the notion that the people who broke the law would go unpunished.