« UN attempts hostile takover of the internet | Main | Hillary assails children's video games »
July 14, 2005
Howard Fineman: The Plame Game
This 2003 web article by Howard Fineman is as unbiased as it is illuminating. It splays the sordid Plame Affair in lucid detail, going all the way back to Bush I's regime and Iraq's rape of Kuwait. He lays out the genesis of the rift between the CIA and the White House, and the real reason that Valerie Plame was exposed as a CIA mole.
On the outing of Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame:
I am told by what I regard as a very reliable source inside the White House that aides there did, in fact, try to peddle the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife to several reporters. But the motive wasn’t revenge or intimidation so much as a desire to explain why, in their view, Wilson wasn’t a neutral investigator, but, a member of the CIA’s leave-Saddam-in-place team.
On Karl Rove:
There are those who clearly want to finger Rove as the mastermind of the leaks, even though, through spokesmen, he flatly denies that he was involved. But while he is universally admired for his brilliance, he has generated much jealously by essentially gathering all the reins of political power in his own hands. Democrats loathe him, which is to be expected. But many Republicans, especially on the Hill, don’t like him much, either. He’s just too powerful. If they can rat him out, they will—never mind that Bush would be lost without him.
On the White House arrogance:
Bush preaches humility, and believes it is a cardinal virtue. But some of the people around him honor it in the breach. If it can be proved that they did, in fact, leak Mrs. Wilson’s name and job, they committed an act of arrogance—and political stupidity. You’d think that the Bush White House would know an essential lesson of presidential survival in Washington: You don’t pick a fight with the CIA. Nixon learned the consequences of doing so; Bush One, a former director of the CIA, could have explained it to his son.
Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 14, 2005 at 3:24 PM
Comments