After an eventful day over at the liveblogging of the House's CIA Leak Hearing, I decided to see wht the other side was sasying about Valerie Plame's testimony.
I was expecting a modicum of open-mindedness, but I should have know better.
There's just no reaching some people...
I was under the impression that the crux of the Right's arguments were that Ms. Plame had not publicly stated the whats, whys and wheres; that she hadn't categorically stated what her status and job was. Without testimony coming from the source, they were pretty free to pull any type of crazy scenario from their collective asses.
But then Ms. Plame testified. In her testimony, she said:
In the run-up to the war with Iraq, I worked in the Counter Proliferation Division of the CIA, still as a covert officer, whose affiliation with the CIA was classified. I raced to discover solid intelligence for senior policy makers on Iraq's presumed weapons of mass destruction programs. While I helped to manage and run secret worldwide operations against this WMD target from CIA headquarters in Washington, I also traveled to foreign countries on secret missions to find vital intelligence.
She was asked about the truth of her covert status, how her husband was assigned the task to go to Niger, and what impact she thought the leak had. Finally, the American people had heard from the one person who we needed to hear from. For the Right, here was the opportunity for them to come up with rational, logical rebuttals to Ms. Plame's testimony.
Instead, they chose to take the low road.
Powerline's response? Valerie Plame lied:
Valerie Plame, the "undercover" agent whose cover was "blown" by Richard Armitage reportedly has testified to Congress that, prior to Armitage's revelation, her covert status "was not widely known on the Georgetown cocktail circuit." I guess that counts as keeping a secret by Washington standards.
Then there's their thread, entitled: "Plame Takes Oath, Tells First Lie."
I can't help but think this "outrage" has something to do with the fact that Ms. Plame said she considers herself a Democrat. Look at the thread and notice the Sandy Berger/Clinton references; those comments would have been far and few had she said she was a card-carrying Republican.
NRO was no better:
This is what Valerie Plame Wilson just said about her husband's trip: "I did not recommend him, I did not suggest him, I did not have the authority." An officer serving under her was upset to have received an inquiry from the vice president's office about yellowcake from Niger and evidently, while she was comforting that junior officer, some guy walked by her office and suggested her husband should go to Niger to check it out.
She said she was ambivalent about the idea because she didn't want to have to put her 2 year-old twins to bed by herself at night. Still, she and the guy who had just happened to walk by then went to her supervisor.
Supervisor: Well, when you go home this evening, would you ask your husband to come in.
Then her supervisor asked her to write an e-mail about the idea. She did so. That e-mail, she said, was the basis for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence claim that she had been responsible for sending her husband to Niger for the CIA.
In other words, she didn't recommend him or suggest him. Rather, it was a guy who walked by.
So to recap: the testimony of Valerie Plame can't be true because of the email...of Valerie Plame. Except up til now, there wasn't a solid story on how that email came about. Ms. Plame has connected the dots, but it doesn't fit with the "She sent her husband" talking point, so she must be a liar.
People like this will never, ever think their side is wrong. How can you argue that Valerie Plame is a walking pack of lies but Scooter Libby was soooo busy he can be excused for forgetting who he said what to when? I guess it's much more easier to call the facts lies when they don't fit the talking points. So with this mindset, Hillary is the pariah and Guliani is the flawed family man. Obama is the smiling trickster; McCain is the misunderstood maverick. Edwards is the girly wimp; Rommney is the changed man. Bubba is bad; Dubya is determined. Democrats lie; Republicans play the political game.
This is the world we're living in; this is the reality of our opposition. There is no sense of compromise or collaboration anymore. It's no longer "I agree with the destination but not the path," it's "My way or fuck you." Hopefully it won't stay this way.