Bush Authorized Plame leak?

In a story spreading like wildfire on the net but mostly ignored on the television, court papers have ex-chief of staff for Chenay claim that the President himself authorized the leak on Plame. The implications of such an act would normally be devestating but since the republicans have made a science of flaunting the law, I see little happening here.

The interesting aspect of the story is that the White House is neither confirming or denying the story. One thing is telling though is that Scott McClellen did feel a need to argue that Bush can de-classify information if he wants to. McClellan said, "Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around at the time, we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified be declassified, and that's exactly what we did."

Of course this doesn't answer the question of why the White House wasn't up front about that in 2003. Why allow a two year plus investigation, costing who knows how much money continue if they believes the President can do what he wants? To me the whole thing stinks to high hell. If true, the story confirms my theory that the leak had to come from the top.