White House Credibility, Not Wilson's, at Issue
As I suggested yesterday, the position that John Tierney so reasonably argues in the NYT is really not so reasonable. Like others, Tierney points out that Joseph Wilson was bending the truth when he said to reporters things like that his mission to Niger was initiated by the Vice President. Well, that's a lame thing to claim if it isn't true. But Joseph Wilson's lameness is really not the issue here.
An analysis by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen in today's Washinton Post reviews the timeline of the Wilson work in Niger and casts this timeline against the political challenges unfolding for the Bush administration at the same time, events that included a serious credibility problem with their trumped-up charge of Saddam Hussein's pursuit of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
What is at issue now is a White House political operative -- Karl Rove -- who systematically smeared a CIA intelligence source working on gathering information about weapons of mass destruction -- Wilson. In smearing Wilson to discredit information that undermined Bush's trumped up charges against Saddam Hussein, Rove exposed a covert CIA operative, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame.
The special prosecutor is not pursuing this case because Wilson is lame; he is pursuing it because it is illegal to expose covert CIA operatives. In fact, exposing agents seriously damages national security. The leaks that Rove and others in the White House strategically engineered are evidence of an administration that operates on all levels using the most suspect and dangerous of rationales: the ends justify the means.
Here's another example of the Bush administration using "ends justify means" rationale: to justify going to war it lied and told the American people that there was evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and then later said that fighting in Iraq was a way to spread democracy and freedom to the Middle East. The means -- deceptive information and shifting reasons -- are meant to lead to an end which includes a democratized Iraq. And flowers in the streets. And grateful men, women, and children. And George Bush as the visionary maverick who led the world to drink at the bountiful waters of democracy -- and maybe even Christianity, if it works out that way.
In fact, it is the administration's credibility that is at issue here, not Joseph Wilson's.
And as calmer heads prevail, and we discover more information that supports claims on both sides of the issue, the picture that is developing continues to reinforce the sense that the Bush administration has been operating under some dangerously corrupt assumptions for quite some time. The White House policy of justifying questionable political practices by pointing to a future in which results will justify the means is now exposed through the example of Karl Rove, a man who clearly was deceptive and who likely will have to resign. He will have to resign in order to save Bush from further embarrassment and to save his own politically dark strategies from further exposure to the light of a now assertive mainstream press.
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As I said in my July 11 post, I believe it is a second source, not Rove, who the special prosecutor is going after.
On today's Meet the Press, Matt Cooper identifies Scooter Libby as a second source.
I do not know if Libby is the target of the investigation, but I am speculating that he may be. Call it a hunch, but I think it is more likely that he will be indicted than will Rove.
_____====_____
Tired of the fat cats doing all the talking? Engage in Fatspeak.
Let's chew the fat. Click on "comments" below, and post a thought.
An analysis by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen in today's Washinton Post reviews the timeline of the Wilson work in Niger and casts this timeline against the political challenges unfolding for the Bush administration at the same time, events that included a serious credibility problem with their trumped-up charge of Saddam Hussein's pursuit of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
What is at issue now is a White House political operative -- Karl Rove -- who systematically smeared a CIA intelligence source working on gathering information about weapons of mass destruction -- Wilson. In smearing Wilson to discredit information that undermined Bush's trumped up charges against Saddam Hussein, Rove exposed a covert CIA operative, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame.
The special prosecutor is not pursuing this case because Wilson is lame; he is pursuing it because it is illegal to expose covert CIA operatives. In fact, exposing agents seriously damages national security. The leaks that Rove and others in the White House strategically engineered are evidence of an administration that operates on all levels using the most suspect and dangerous of rationales: the ends justify the means.
Here's another example of the Bush administration using "ends justify means" rationale: to justify going to war it lied and told the American people that there was evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and then later said that fighting in Iraq was a way to spread democracy and freedom to the Middle East. The means -- deceptive information and shifting reasons -- are meant to lead to an end which includes a democratized Iraq. And flowers in the streets. And grateful men, women, and children. And George Bush as the visionary maverick who led the world to drink at the bountiful waters of democracy -- and maybe even Christianity, if it works out that way.
In fact, it is the administration's credibility that is at issue here, not Joseph Wilson's.
And as calmer heads prevail, and we discover more information that supports claims on both sides of the issue, the picture that is developing continues to reinforce the sense that the Bush administration has been operating under some dangerously corrupt assumptions for quite some time. The White House policy of justifying questionable political practices by pointing to a future in which results will justify the means is now exposed through the example of Karl Rove, a man who clearly was deceptive and who likely will have to resign. He will have to resign in order to save Bush from further embarrassment and to save his own politically dark strategies from further exposure to the light of a now assertive mainstream press.
____====_____
As I said in my July 11 post, I believe it is a second source, not Rove, who the special prosecutor is going after.
On today's Meet the Press, Matt Cooper identifies Scooter Libby as a second source.
I do not know if Libby is the target of the investigation, but I am speculating that he may be. Call it a hunch, but I think it is more likely that he will be indicted than will Rove.
_____====_____
Tired of the fat cats doing all the talking? Engage in Fatspeak.
Let's chew the fat. Click on "comments" below, and post a thought.
posted by August at 12:02 PM
1 Comments:
Dietking's angry young man approach to politics is energizing and smacks of truth. Things are pretty bad in all walks of our lives. It is so difficult to understand why anyone supports Bush anymore.
Unityhope's pragmatic message is timely. Smart people have been saying again and again that in order to fight the corruption of the administration and the compliant Congress, we must adopt their methods of persuasion. That seems so revolting. But we could, at least, attempt to understand their methods -- and to recognize why they are successful.
I don't think Bush is in office because voters are stupid. I think he's in office because voters are frightened and they want assurances that the U.S. will always be on top of the world -- by hook or by crook. Under extreme circumstances -- and Dietking has spelled those out pretty well here -- people accept the "ends justify means" approach.
What is so frustrating is that people don't seem to see that our current extreme circumstances are largely attributable to the same folks who are willing to use any means to make it seem like America is the biggest, baddest empire on earth.
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