The whole squawk about a “special counsel” to investigate the supposed outing of Wilson’s wife was revealed as another hyper-partisan exercise last night in the Hardball segment I did with Chris Matthews and Leon Charney. Charney, an unrehabilitated Carterite, said that the American people are feeling very nervous about why we went into Iraq, and that an “independent counsel” (a la Walsh) could clear this up. He wanted an independent counsel (the law, thankfully, expired in 1999) to investigate Bush and the famous 16 words, not the possible crime in outing Plame. This is so pitifully transparent it’s taking Sen. Schumer to a new low. Which is a very difficult exercise, indeed.