The White House won’t directly comment on the latest bombshell in the Valerie Plame case, which baffles even those who had given the president the benefit of the doubt.

A court filing last week says that the president and vice president authorized the leaking of classified information by I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. The White House doesn’t deny this, but it also refuses to elaborate. This looks bad for President Bush, and even supporters can see that he needs to come forward.

“This is a very significant disclosure. This is big. They owe all of us an explanation, all of us who trust him, and they owe the American people an explanation,” said U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, a respected Republican from Illinois.

It doesn’t look like the White House agrees, and perhaps a recent comment by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice provides insight into this pigheadedness. In a recent visit to England, she acknowledged that the United States had made thousands of tactical mistakes in Iraq, taking care to note that the strategic decision to enter the war was solid.

Maybe the administration’s distinction between “tactical” and “strategic” helps explain why it continues to miss repeated opportunities to clear the air about its use of prewar intelligence. While it may be painfully obvious to many Americans that the White House spun classified information to push the country into war, it might not occur to our leaders that there’s anything wrong with that.

Oh, they might rue some of the tactics, such as those that have landed Libby in legal jeopardy, but the strategy was fine.

This, of course, is just speculation, but how else to explain the three-year-long tap dance? It would be nice if the president just delivered some of that straight talk that endeared him to supporters in the first place. Instead, he silently allows foes to roast him with his own harsh comments about others who leak classified information.

It’s clear that the president made a strategic decision to go to war in Iraq, but he needed the backing of Congress and the American people. The tactical decisions to gain that support are important for a democracy.

When it comes to foreign policy and matters of war, the executive branch has exclusive information at its disposal. The American people have to be able to trust the president to act with honesty and integrity.

It’s not like a battle over a domestic issue, where proponents and opponents have access to the same information. In that case, political spin is to be expected. But not when the nation is sending young men and women off to war.

If the president were involved in leaking, he would not be in legal jeopardy. He is given the power to declassify information. Plus, nobody is claiming that he divulged information that outed a CIA agent. But using his power to slash at political opponents, as has been alleged in the Valerie Plame case, is a serious breach of trust.

President Bush has three more years as commander in chief. The war in Iraq still rages. The situation is Iran is unsettling. Terrorism is a constant menace. Meanwhile, polls show that the American people are losing faith in his leadership.

An arrogant silence won’t regain that trust.