>>>could it be that Ashcroft removed himself because there is nothing there<<<
Nothing there as in no leak, or an "insignificant" leak since Valerie Plame's capacity was "common knowledge within the beltway insiders"? It has been documented that six individual reporters were contacted by two WH officials and given this information. All but Novak declined to publish it and you can't deny that Novak publishing the story made an undercover CIA agent's identity known to an audience beyond the beltway insiders. How do you arrive at the "nothing there" theory?