Normally she spends her days presiding over foreign messes, but now Condoleezza Rice has a mess wholly contained within the Washington D.C. metro area on her hands. If nothing else, it should make for a nice change of pace.

Yesterday, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia approved subpoenas for Secretary of State Rice, and nine other Bush Administration all-stars, past and present. Their testimony is being sought by two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who are accused of violating the Espionage Act by, as the Washington Post sums it up, “conspiring to obtain classified information and pass it to members of the media and the Israeli government.”

The defendants claim that any government secrets they may have had in their possession were given to them by Bush administration officials to pass on, and Rice knows it. They say that’s just the way things works in Washington, and they shouldn’t be punished because they played the game clumsily.

The Bush administration, naturally, is going to resist the subpoenas, but so far, no one is taking about just ignoring them the way the administration ignores Congressional subpoenas. That’s a nice change of pace.

Tags: American Israel Public Affairs Committee, classified information, Condoleeza Rice, Espionage Act, subpoenas, Washington Post