This is really looking like the most stunning humiliation for the anti-Bush Left in ... well, ever....
Best of the Web Today - August 28, 2006
By JAMES TARANTO
Eternal Plame
Or at least it seemed that way. Three years after the Valerie Plame kerfuffle began, it seems to be ending with a whimper--that whimper being "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," by Michael Isikoff and David Corn. Corn is the writer for The Nation, a left-wing magazine (or possibly a right-wing parody of a left-wing magazine) who got the whole thing started by parroting Joe Wilson's claims that his wife's "outing" violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Isikoff is a reporter for Newsweek. Their collaboration raises the possibility of liberal bias in the mainstream media.
First of all, "Hubris"? This comes on the heels of Tom Ricks's "Fiasco." Then there was "Slander," "Treason" and "Godless." It seems everyone wants to be Ann Coulter these days.
But we digress--for which you can hardly blame us, as the Plame kerfuffle is such a tedious affair. Nonetheless, out of an obligation to history, we shall recount the revelations from the Isikoff-Corn book, which Isikoff outlines in a story in Newsweek:
o The man who "leaked" Plame's identity and her involvement in her husband's Niger junket to columnist Bob Novak and other reporters was not Karl Rove, Scooter Libby or anyone else in the White House. It was Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state.
o Armitage's motives were not malicious. He is "a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters" and "apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity."
o It was from a classified memo that Armitage learned Plame worked for the CIA. But there was no violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act; special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame's covert CIA status." (By all available evidence, Plame's covert status had expired by the time of her "outing" anyway.)
o In October 2003 Armitage confessed to his boss, Colin Powell, that he was the "leaker." The State Department decided to withhold this information from the White House, because "Powell and his aides feared the White House would then leak that Armitage had been Novak's source--possibly to embarrass State Department officials who had been unenthusiastic about Bush's Iraq policy."
David Corn weighs in on the Puffington Host in which he hilariously tries to downplay the extent to which these revelations discredit his initial enthusiasm for the purported scandal:
The Plame leak in Novak's column has long been cited by Bush administration critics as a deliberate act of payback, orchestrated to punish and/or discredit Joe Wilson after he charged that the Bush administration had misled the American public about the prewar intelligence. The Armitage news does not fit neatly into that framework.
To say the least! As we observed on PBS 10 months ago, this was a "Seinfeld" scandal--an investigation about nothing.
Of course, much as this seemed like a sitcom, it had consequences in real life. Because Armitage did not come clean right away, many people suffered:
o Millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted investigating a nonexistent crime.
o Innocent White House officials were distracted from serving the country in order to participate in the investigation, which was in full swing a year ago when Hurricane Katrina struck.
o Scooter Libby lost his job and was indicted for actions that never would have occurred but for the investigation.
o The Democratic left, putting its faith in scandal to bring down the Bush administration, became even more fatuous and ineffective.
The only winner in this whole deal is Joe Wilson's ego--and think of the toll it's taken on his poor little superego.
Those who tried to turn the Plame kerfuffle into Watergate threw around words like "treason" and "slander" (though, interestingly, not "godless"). Armitage appears to be guilty of nothing of the sort. But it does seem that he was careless with secret information, eager to cover his own backside, and heedless of the consequences his actions had for others. So let it never be said that Richard Armitage is a profile in courage.
Did Hezbollah Win?--III
Hezbollah honcho Hassan Nasrallah seems at least ambivalent about the question, as CNN suggests:
Had Hezbollah known how Israel was going to respond, the group would not have captured two Israeli soldiers last month in northern Israel, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday.
But, in an interview with Lebanon's New TV, Nasrallah also said the war would have happened anyway--a few months later.
He insisted, without offering evidence, that Israel had been planning to launch military action in October, and the July raid by Hezbollah merely moved up the Israelis' timetable. . . .
If someone had said July 11 that there was "a one percent possibility" Israel's military response would be as extensive as it turned out to be, "I would say no, I would not have entered this for many reasons--military, social, political, economic," said Nasrallah, speaking in Arabic. . . .
But, he added, "If we hadn't captured those soldiers, the war would have come in October anyway." Hezbollah's raid drew Israeli action sooner and "deprived the Israelis of the element of surprise," he said.
If Nasrallah was expecting an attack in October, it's hard to see how the Israelis would have had "the element of surprise." Nasrallah also declares "victory" in the same interview. Yet his claim that he wouldn't have authorized the kidnapping of the soldiers had he known the consequences suggests that military action can deter terrorist groups.
Half a Cheer for Hamas
The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reports on a remarkable article by Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman and former "newspaper" editor:
Dismissing Israel's responsibility for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, Hamad said it was time for the Palestinians to embark on a soul-searching process to see where they erred.
"We're always afraid to talk about our mistakes," he added. "We're used to blaming our mistakes on others. What is the relationship between the chaos, anarchy, lawlessness, indiscriminate murders, theft of land, family rivalries, transgression on public lands and unorganized traffic and the occupation? We are still trapped by the mentality of conspiracy theories--one that has limited our capability to think." . . .
"We have all been attacked by the bacteria of stupidity," he remarked. "We have lost our sense of direction and we don't know where we're headed."
The Middle East Media Research Institute has lengthier excerpts. To get a full cheer from us, Hamas would have to renounce both terrorism as a tactic and genocide as a goal. But there's no denying that Hamad is making more sense than Yasser Arafat* ever did.
* In stable condition for 655 days.
Cable Converter
The good news is, Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig are free after two weeks as hostages in Gaza. The bad news, according to Time magazine, is that the negotiations between the Hamas government and the kidnappers, "who belong to a splinter group of the late Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement," may "complicate efforts to free another captive--Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit--held by Palestinian militants":
Palestinian security sources close to the negotiators told Time that the two Fox Newsmen . . . were kidnapped from Gaza to embarrass [Prime Minister Ismael] Haniyeh's government. The militants, who earlier identified themselves as members of the previously unknown Holy Jihad Brigades, were enraged with fellow Hamas militants because they too had joined in the daring capture on June 25th of Corp. Shalit, in which Palestinian gunmen tunneled under a wall and attacked an Israeli army post. But according to these security sources, the militant groups fell out after Hamas' military wing took control of Shalit and elbowed the other co-conspirators aside.
Haniyeh was able to secure the journalists' freedom, but at a high price: he has agreed to give these armed extremists a role in deciding the fate of the Israeli soldier, these sources said.
The New York Times reports that Centanni and Wiig "were released unharmed on Sunday after being forced at gunpoint to say on a videotape that they had converted to Islam." That is a curious way of putting it. Isn't a forced religious "conversion" a form of harm?
One suspects the Times would not describe as "unharmed" the al Qaeda prisoners who supposedly have endured insults to their religion by U.S. interrogators. For secular Westerners, taking religion seriously is an act of condescension toward "victimized" groups.
We Wuz Robbed!
Adam Cohen, an editorialist for the New York Times, has come up with a new reason to hate President Bush. The president, Cohen argues, "robbed America of its optimism":
President Clinton was often mocked for his declarations that he still believed "in a place called Hope." But he understood that instilling hope is a critical part of leadership. Other than a few special interest programs--like cutting taxes on the wealthy and giving various incentives to business--it is hard to think of areas in which the Bush administration has raised the nation's hopes and met them. This president has, instead, tried to focus the American people on the fear of terrorism, for which there is no cure, only bad choices or something worse.
Well, this passage from President Bush's Second Inaugural sounds pretty optimistic to us:
We have seen our vulnerability--and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny--prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder--violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.
We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.
Besides, Adam, where have you been? There is actually a reasonable explanation for why Americans fear terrorism more now than they did during the Clinton years, and it isn't because of anything President Bush has done. We'll be happy to explain it to you over drinks. Just meet us at the time of your choosing at Windows on the World.
Baked Alaska
This item from Mickey Kaus amused us for several reasons, so we're reproducing it in its entirety:
Cocooning isn't easy: It takes drive and determination to portray Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski's loss in his state's Republican primary, in which the big issue was a natural gas pipeline, as a referendum on the Iraq war. After a tense struggle, the NYT's William Yardley eventually gets there, in paragraph 18 of a 19 graf story. But just barely:
Paul Pierson, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, said Mr. Murkowski's loss, while rooted in local issues, might show something broader about voters as polls show high disapproval over how some incumbents handle issues like the Iraq war. [Emphasis on conceptual bungee cords added]
Hanging on by both fingernails, but it's in! ... Thank God for professors of political science. ... [This seems like another one Taranto had days ago--ed Nope.]
Speaking of Alaska, last year we met Murkowski's predecessor in the Senate, Mike Gravel, at a dinner party in France. We liked him, although his politics are not ours. Since then, Gravel, who served two terms in the Senate before losing the Democratic primary in 1980 (the man who beat him went on to lose to Murkowski), has announced that he is making a run for the presidency in 2008, when he will be 78 years old and 28 years out of public office.
Some might call this quixotic, but last week his campaign put out a press release titled "Gravel Impressive in Zogby Poll":
Democratic Presidential candidate, former United States Senator Mike Gravel showed surprising strength in the most recent Zogby poll that rated candidate support based on their biographies in lieu of their names. Out of office and out of the spotlight for over 25 years, with little perceived name/biographical recognition, rolling out a specific, comprehensive and unique agenda while running on limited resources, the Senator was still able come out well ahead of the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joe Biden, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack while drawing even with the 2004 Democratic Nominee for President, Senator John Kerry. Senator Gravel was slightly behind Hillary Clinton in the poll.
With no potential Democratic candidate polling more than 14.8%, Senator Gravel's 4.9% provides a base that positions him to bring his clarion call of "Let the People Decide" as well as the other major planks of his agenda to a widening audience of American voters.
At least Mike Gravel will never claim President Bush robbed him of his optimism.
Homer Nods
Three and one-half is a compound number, not a composite number as we stated in an item Friday. The chart in that item, which listed time zones that are offset from Greenwich Mean Time by other than an exact number of hours, omitted Chatham Island, part of New Zealand, where the time is GMT + 12:45. Both errors have been corrected.
Metaphor Alert
Our erstwhile colleague Al Hunt, now a columnist for Bloomberg, observes: "To win the six seats necessary for a Senate majority, Democrats need a perfect political storm that even a tsunami may not produce." That seems a fair bet, given that a tsunami is a tidal wave caused by a seismic disturbance and has nothing to do with the weather.
Fun With Dick and Jane
"Cat Catches Bat, Bat Has Rabies, Bat Put Down"--headline, RadioIowa.com, Aug. 25
Hard to Believe Anyone Was Looking at Their Eyebrows
"Nude Teens Raise Eyebrows in Vermont Town"--headline, Reuters, Aug. 24
If You Want to Keep Something Precious, Got to Lock It Up and Throw Away the Key
"Sting Rounds Up 25 Foreigners for Sex Crimes"--headline, WorldNetDaily, Aug. 25
How It Got in the Disguise We'll Never Know
"Crooks Rob Bank Disguised as Construction Workers"--headline, WTTG-TV Web site (Washington), Aug. 24
'The Bad News Is, I'm a Little Bit Pregnant'
"Partial Victory for Morning After Pill"--headline, Detroit Free Press, Aug. 25
News You Can Use
"TRAVELER'S CHECK: If You Live Near Airport, Expect Noise"--headline, Arkansas Democrat Gazette (Northwest Arkansas edition), Aug. 28
Bottom Stories of the Day
o "Canoe Flips, Canoeists OK"--headline, WOOD-TV Web site (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Aug. 26
o "Lee Overcomes Sniffles"--headline, Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 27
o "Farmers' Almanac Predicts a Cold Winter"--headline, Boston Globe, Aug. 28
o "Former US President Carter 'Disappointed' With Blair"--headline, Voice of America Web site, Aug. 27
Patrick Fitzgerald, Call Your Office
From an obituary in London's Daily Telegraph:
Bill Linskey, more commonly known as "Dartmoor Bill", who died on Tuesday aged 85, was the longest-sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous in Britain and Europe, having not touched a drink for the past 53 years.
Hey, he was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Who leaked his name to the press? We blame Karl Rove! |
