Political Frog Games
By Dave Franklin on 10/04/03
"At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words."
So proclaimed former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV at an August 21st anti-war forum hosted by Congressman Jay Insley (D-WA). White House top political advisor, Karl Rove remains free and on the job. And, “at the end of the day”, Joseph Wilson is frog-hopping from TV show to TV show making accusations about alleged administration exposure of his CIA-employed wife.
Wilson admits getting “carried away by the spirit of the moment” when he spoke to 1100 people in Seattle. But continuing his assertion that the Bush administration has engaged in a revenge attack on him, Joe Wilson still maintains that Karl Rove “was actively condoning it and certainly did nothing to shut it down”.
George W. Bush’s senior advisor also did nothing to shut down Hurricane Isabel before it knocked out the power in Washington last month. But that doesn’t mean a Category I storm could be blamed on the White House. Local talk shows heard on battery powered AM radio did include callers from the crazy left wing in DC who tried to blame the storm and its associated power outage on President Bush. So far, no denial about the hurricane has been forthcoming, but the White House has refuted assertions that Rove had anything to do with a press leak about Joseph Wilson’s wife.
The time has passed for a once obscure former ambassador to put up or shut up. If Joe Wilson had evidence that anyone in the government violated laws protecting the secrecy of his wife’s employment status, or that of thousands that spend their careers in intelligence, he should have given it to the Justice Department. Instead, Wilson’s fantasies have become anthem for leftists who are trying to discredit the mission of American troops using publicity roused by innuendo and unsubstantiated allegations.
Laws protecting the secret employment of certain CIA analysts in Langley are vital, and must be taken seriously. The status of intelligence operatives overseas can be a matter of life and death, for exposure of it can result in kidnapping or murder. Even those working at domestic station, all having their faults and personal vulnerabilities, may be targets of local initiatives by foreign governments against America. People with access to deep secrets of intelligence require insulation from efforts to entice their cooperation with foreign interests that are trying to undermine the United States.
Still, if Ambassador Wilson believes that his wife has been compromised by exposure, he has done a horrible job of dealing with it. Instead of working privately with his wife and the CIA to have a Justice Department investigation initiated (as is done routinely when any covert CIA employee’s cover is compromised), Wilson went wildly public in the media and at meetings with false allegations against Karl Rove. And he did so without regard to the stark negative impact of broad publicity on his wife’s ability to protect classified information -- the more well known, the more likely a target.
Fifteen minutes of fame has allure, especially when it is accompanied by an opportunity to promote one’s political agenda. Joseph Wilson has not revealed himself to be very concerned about serving the country. Noted here back in August, the man was tasked by the CIA to look into Iraq’s efforts to acquire uranium in Niger. Wilson produced his only known written report about a half-hearted “tea-time” Niger investigation for an Op Ed in the New York Times. By that, he did not serve our nation very well.
With Wilson’s blitzkrieg of recent media appearances about his wife’s employment status, we should consider that National Review columnist Cliff May wrote that he had known for some time about her work at the CIA. Nonetheless, Wilson claims that his wife’s exposure was initiated as a part of some revenge plot by the Bush administration. Did a vast right-wing conspiracy strike again? The White House called that “ridiculous” and Robert Novak discredited the open allegation by Wilson.
But Democratic Senators insist that Wilson’s assertions warrant a “special prosecutor”, invoking memories of the Watergate crisis during the Nixon administration. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) blindly accepted Wilson’s claims and cried “dastardly act”. “It's a despicable thing to do, and some newspapers report that it was the White House that did it," said the Senior Senator from New York.
Presidential Candidate Wesley Clark didn’t let a day go by without jumping on the bandwagon. What transformation can raw ambition render? The little General who once praised George Bush and his team said, “This administration has played politics with national security for a long time, but this is going too far.”
Who is playing politics with national security? That answer lies in everything from Joe Wilson’s highly public accusations about “unwanted” publicity, to Chuck Schumer’s dreams about another Saturday Night Massacre and Wesley Clark’s desperate attempts at regaining political clout in the Democrat Party after an “aim high” video in which he praised Republicans. Paranoid, ignorant, or just plain vindictive, the wacky left has demonstrated yet again its dearth of worthiness to be trusted with authority. |
