All Intensive Purposes

I once had a roommate whose ability to think in long chains of what we who cannot think in such terms would call double-negatives -- i.e., triple-, quadruple-, quintuple-negatives (etc.) -- was astounding. Today he is a successful corporate lawyer in Chicago, Illinois. Perhaps he could unravel this recent AP story on the Plame investigation, the subject of Jack Shafer's piece in Slate:

The Valerie Plame investigation is ostensibly about identifying the anonymous government source or sources who leaked her alleged status as a covert CIA officer. After reading this AP story, I was as bent and twisted as Gumby. In trying to determine who Bob Woodward's anonymous source might be, the story cites another anonymous source to clear the vice president of suspicions that he was the anonymous source for the foremost collector of anonymous sources in our time.

Shafer says it's Woodward. Unless I'm confused, which is highly possible.