WILLIAM SAFIRE: CONSERVATIVE CHAMELEON, and Willing Dupe?
Tom,
Re: I look at the source - Safire. What agenda would he have to fabricate this story?
Safire has been all over the map w/r/t the Bushies. In 1992, he wrote a scathing attack on Poppy and the Raygun distribution of WMD goodies to Iraq in a column on "Iraqgate".
Cf.: security-policy.org
In this, he was a strange bedfellow with one of my heroes, Rep. Henry Gonzales (D. Tx)
fas.org
********
Recently, Safire's hawkishness has surprised me, since he obviously knows how duplicitous and craven the Bushies are.
This story about al Qaeda having the ability to communicate directly the President's plane with secret codes reminds me of 1) Saturday morning cartoons and 2) an incident that has been reported in Lou Dubose's "Boy Genius" and James Moore's "Bush's Brain".
Several years ago, when Carl Rove (the subject of these two exposes), was a political consultant to Bill Clements, in a tight race for Governor of Texas, Rove broke a story about a "bug" being found in his office on the morning of an important debate between the candidates. Interestingly, Rove didn't bother to call the police after a "de-bugging" operation by a private surveillance contractor found the bug. No, Rove called a press conference.
Little was made of the fact during the remaining two weeks of the campaign (or later) that Rove himself was a prime suspect on the planting of the "bug". And the story that destroyed his political opponent.
********
Could Safire have been duped and used by Carl Rove? Absolutely, according to Wayne Slater, co-author of "Bush's Brain", who was called by Rove when Slater was a reporter at a Dallas newspaper to spread a vicious rumor about a Democrat that Rove wanted to discredit.
Rove has no conscience. He'll lie about anything. Was Safire a willing dupe? Sure looks like it to me. |
