Joe Wilson looking to extend his 15 minutes of fame

Joseph Wilson IV, self-appointed hero of the anti-Bush left, has decided that the best way to keep his name in the news is to file a civil suit against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for the revelation of his wife's CIA identity to the press.

Wilson has parlayed the whole Niger-Iraq-Uranium connection and his subsequent battle with the Bush administration into book deals, wide-ranging interviews, even a Vanity Fair photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz, but he still has not gotten his outsized head around the fact that this is about more, or rather less, than him and his desk-set wife, Valerie.

This is all so politically motivated that without the partisan element, the trial, the controversy, and Joe Wilson himself would have nothing to stand on. There's a great op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today that speaks volumes about this. The suggestion is also made to pardon Libby now, which is what I suggested yesterday on this blog.

A final word on Wilson's civil case. It will most likely move forward, but he will have a tough time for a couple of reasons:

1. If the Libby trial proved anything, it is that Libby is not the White House official who leaked Plame's identity to the press. In fact, it wasn't the White House at all. It was Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State. So, if Wilson wants satisfaction for the outing of his wife, Libby is not the man to pursue.
2. The other names mentioned in Wilson's suit, Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, will likely be immune because of their government positions.

Of course, if the civil case is in any way stymied, that will only further prove to Wilson that he and his wife are the target of a vast right-wing conspiracy to reveal to the public what they do for a living.