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October 02, 2003
Slime and Defend
An article in the New York Times looks at how the White House is planning to defend itself dring the Plame scandal.
The White House encouraged Republicans to portray the former diplomat at the center of the case, Joseph C. Wilson IV, as a partisan Democrat with an agenda and the Democratic Party as scandalmongering. At the same time, the administration and the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill worked to ensure that no Republicans in Congress break ranks and call for an independent inquiry outside the direct control of the Justice Department.It's imperative that those of us who want to see a full and honest investigation into this mess do what we can to prevent the White House from changing the topic. "Slime and Defend" depends on their ability to make Joseph Wilson the focus of this investigation when, in reality, who he is, what he believes, who he supports and what is does are all completely irrelevant to the matter at hand."It's slime and defend," said one Republican aide on Capitol Hill, describing the White House's effort to raise questions about Mr. Wilson's motivations and its simultaneous effort to shore up support in the Republican ranks.
"So far so good," the aide said. "There's nervousness on the part of the party leadership, but no defections in the sense of calling for an independent counsel."
Some are saying that if the CIA hadn't decided to send a partisan hack to Niger, we'd never have gotten to this point. Well, duh, if things were different they wouldn't be the same. However you want to characterize Wilson, if he hadn't been sent to Niger, they're right, we wouldn't be talking about his wife at all.
That is, however, entirely beside the point. The issue isn't who the CIA sent or why that person was chosen. Its how the White House and others in the Administration chose to react to that decision that matters.
If they wanted to discredit Wilson or his findings, they could have released as much information as they wanted to about his alleged partisanship. They could have brought up every flaw they think the man possesses. They could have provided evidence to show that his conclusions were wrong (if, in fact, any such evidence existed, which I, at least, doubt). There were a thousand different things they could have done to make his character or his opinions look weak. What they chose to do, however, was to blow his wife's cover. That's not Wilson's fault, no matter how you slice it.
The whole idea that Wilson, by going on the trip to Niger and then making his own views on the matter known, or the CIA, by choosing to send Wilson on the Nigerien mission, are somehow responsible for the way the White House responded is no different than when a criminal tries to blame his victim for "causing" him to commit a crime. In fact, if the allegations being investigated are true, it is a criminal trying to blame its victim for "causing" it to commit it's crime.
We abhor the defense when it's used in court. We should abhor it no less when it's used by the White House and Bush Administration.
Posted by thorswitch at October 2, 2003 06:01 PM
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