July 12, 2004
Plame Out
First Plame outed, now Wilson outed as partisan hack...
An outstanding column in NRO reviews the overwrought Valerie Plame affair, and revisits the Niger/Iraq uranium link that was famously excoriated in the press after Bush remarked upon it in the State of the Union address.
The entire Plame affair has always been much ado about nothing. Wilson, with a flair for political overdramatization, used a Democrat party apparatus desperate to sieze on anything to bring the President down a notch or two, and used a media with the same goal but imbued with the always effervescent desire to "uncover" the truth in a heroic fashion, to perpetrate his own fairy tale version of events.
Wilson, so apparently entranced by his own vainglorious miasma, made it all about him - his wife was the target of a secret retaliatory strike for him having dared to "tell the truth" about Iraq and Niger (how heroic!), his selection for the mission never being related to his wife's position at CIA (apparently his savoir faire was what attracted others to choose him), and he only had touched the holy grail of truth in Niger.
Problem is, nearly everything he said was incorrect. First, his wife did recommend him for this mission - and that should end any speculation that Valerie Plame was some sort of vital deep cover NOC operating in CIA. What vital CIA asset would offer or allow her husband to go on a high-profile mission so easily traceable to her? It's preposterous on it's face. And it puts the further lie to the notion that somehow, a smear campaign was concocted that 'outed' her in order to get back at Wilson for daring to speak truth to power. Fact is, what Novak reported was right - administration officials were explaining why a partisan hack was doing such important work, and their only defense was - well, his wife at CIA involved in WMD said he'd be the perfect guy.
Insidious criminal intent? Or ass-covering? You be the judge...
Posted by MEC2 at July 12, 2004 06:54 PM