Murray Waas has another update in the Plamegate slog, and it's a fun one -- implicating the President himself in the smear campaign.

Read and learn with us, after the jump.

Bush, in his Oval Office interview, told federal prosecutors that he personally directed Dick Cheney to lead the campaign to discredit Joe Wilson, and authorized him to "disclose highly classified intelligence."

One senior government official familiar with the discussions between Bush and Cheney -- but who does not have firsthand knowledge of Bush's interview with prosecutors -- said that Bush told the vice president to "Get it out," or "Let's get this out," regarding information that administration officials believed would rebut Wilson's allegations and would discredit him.

So -- Bush told Dick to do whatever he wanted, including declassify shit, to discredit Joe Wilson. We get the feeling Cheney was already on top of it before Bush told him. Would Bush have noticed that Joe Wilson needed discrediting without the Vice President telling him? Didn't Dick just hand him his clipping of the Times column with a little note that said "someone should tell someone to discredit this guy"?

Anyway, this looks to us like another volley from Team Cheney.

But it's impressive buck-passing (up, up, up the ladder it goes! Novak to Libby to Cheney to Bush!), and we look forward to Waas' next scoop, "Jesus Gave Bush Authority to Discredit Wilson."