Opponents of the smug and unresponsive Bush administration might view Friday's indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as past-due comeuppance, but the grand jury's charges are inappropriate and serve the nation poorly.

Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed special prosecutor to investigate whether the leaks that identified CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson were illegal. Even launching a criminal investigation of the leak was questionable. Criminal charges against anyone for revealing government information should be brought only in the most narrow of circumstances, those that pose imminent danger to a life or national security - revealing troop movements in time of war, for example. One person's "leak" is another person's whistle-blowing.

The charges against Libby did not involve naming Plame, though. They involved Libby's conduct during the investigation. If the charges are true, his conduct was reprehensible, and Libby was right to resign.

Yes, the Bush administration was on a wrongful mission to silence opponents who questioned whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Yes, Libby and other officials arguably misled the nation in their lust for war against Iraq.

And, yes, there is no small amount of hypocrisy involved in the reaction to these charges. Fitzgerald's investigation and charges are in many ways similar to the conduct of Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate President Clinton's possible involvement in the Whitewater land deal and ended up looking into the president's sex life. Many Bush supporters who are decrying Fitzgerald as overzealous and the charges as technicalities were ecstatic about Starr's investigation that led to Clinton's impeachment. By the same token, many Democrats who criticized the Starr investigation are expressing support for the charges against Libby.

Congress needs to re-examine the scope of special prosecutors' investigations. Any prosecutor with nearly limitless resources responsible for investigating a single case is capable of digging until something illegal is found. That is not the purpose of a special prosecutor.

On an emotional level, a criminal indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff may be a cause for celebration by Bush opponents. But from a public policy standpoint, it was every bit as wrong as Clinton facing impeachment for something that wouldn't have happened had there been no special prosecutor.

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