Auntie Fatcat's

Sit down, have a cookie, and chat for a spell.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Wilson/Rove Fundamentals

Joseph Wilson said, "The story about Saddam buying yellowcake in Africa is a lie." So Karl Rove said, "Don't listen to that guy--his wife sent him."

Yeah, 'cause that's a defense. Apparently, I'd have to watch Fox News to understand why "his wife sent him" = "he must be lying." I guess I'd better not send Rick to the store, because if he came back and told me they've got soy milk on special but they're out of blueberries this week, I'd have to assume he's lying.

The Saddam/yellowcake story was the lie. RNC talking points claim Wilson and his report were "inaccurate," but I note they're not calling out any specific points or providing any evidence on that. Wilson did say his wife wasn't involved in sending him to Niger when it turns out she recommended him for the trip, so I guess that's a smudge on his name. But Rove made out like the trip was all her idea when it really came from her superiors, so he's all smudgy too.

In the end, I don't give a rip who sent Wilson to Niger. It matters only if it biased the accuracy of his findings, and everyone from the 9/11 Commission to the Bush administration eventually admitted that his fundamental conclusions--including no yellowcake for Saddam--were spot on. (A few wackos are still writing letters to the editor defending the yellowcake story, but it's a mighty lonely chorus.)

I also don't give a rip if Rove or anybody else committed a crime in outing Wilson's wife. Not that I would mind seeing Rove clapped in irons and made to walk the plank, but all this attention on his slimy methods sadly distracts us from the greater sliminess of his underlying purpose.

Wilson exposed a lie the White House still needed us to believe. So Rove smeared a whistle-blower--to sell us a war, no less--and far too many Americans believed him. Rove's talent for maligning truths and truth-tellers that inconveniently fail to support Bush administration policy is a much bigger problem than anything a special prosecutor can tag him for.

I just wish the American public would remember who lied and who didn't every time the Republican spin machine tells us to believe Bush and discount his critics.