Posted on 07/17/2004 6:35:46 AM PDT by Pokey78
Well, the week went pretty much as I predicted seven days ago:
BUSH LIED!! Not.
BLAIR LIED!!! Not.
But it turns out JOE WILSON LIED! PEOPLE DIED. Of embarrassment mostly. At least I'm assuming that's why the New York Times, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, PBS drone Bill Moyers and all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they've previously given the hold-the-front-page treatment, too.
And what about John F. Kerry? Joe Wilson campaigned with Kerry in at least six states, and claims to have helped with the candidate's speeches. He was said to be a senior foreign policy adviser to the senator. As of Friday, Wilson's Web site, restorehonesty.com, was still wholly paid for by Kerry's presidential campaign.
Heigh-ho. It would be nice to hear his media boosters howling en masse, "Say it ain't so, Joe!" But Joe Wilson's already slipping down the old media memory hole. He served his purpose -- he damaged Bush, he tainted the liberation of Iraq -- and yes, by the time you read this the Kerry campaign may well have pulled the plug on his Web site, and Salon magazine's luxury cruise will probably have to find another headline speaker, and he won't be doing Tim Russert again any time soon. But what matters to the media and to Senator Kerry is that he helped the cause of (to quote his book title) The Politics Of Truth, and if it takes a serial liar to do that, so be it.
But before he gets lowered in his yellowcake overcoat into the Niger River, let's pause to consider: What do Joe Wilson's lies mean? And what does it say about the Democrats and the media that so many high-ranking figures took him at his word?
First, contrary to what Wilson wrote in the New York Times, Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire uranium from Niger. In support of that proposition are a Senate report in Washington, Lord Butler's report in London, MI6, French intelligence, other European agencies -- and, as we now know, the CIA report, based on Joe Wilson's original briefing to them. Against that proposition is Joe Wilson's revised version of events for the Times.
This isn't difficult. In 1999, a senior Iraqi "trade" delegation went to Niger. Uranium accounts for 75 percent of Niger's exports. The rest is goats, cowpeas and onions. So who sends senior trade missions to Niger? Maybe Saddam dispatched his Baathist big shots all the way to the dusty capital of Niamy because he had a sudden yen for goat and onion stew with a side order of black-eyed peas, and Major Wanke, the then-president, had offered him a great three-for-one deal.
But that's not what Joe Wilson found. Major Wanke's prime minister, among others, told Ambassador Wilson that he believed Iraq wanted yellowcake. And Ambassador Wilson told the CIA. And the CIA's report agreed with the British and the Europeans that "Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Africa."
In his ludicrously vain memoir The Politics Of Truth, Wilson plays up his knowledge of the country. He makes much of his intimacy with Wanke and gives himself the credit for ridding Niger of the Wanke regime. The question then is why a man who knew so much about what was going on chose deliberately to misrepresent it to all his media/ Democrat buddies, not to mention to the American people. For a book called The Politics Of Truth, it's remarkably short of it. On page 2, Wilson says of his trip to Niger: "I had found nothing to substantiate the rumors." But he had.
That's what lying is, by the way: intentional deceit, not unreliable intelligence. And I'm not usually the sort to bandy the liar-liar-pants-on-fire charge beloved by so many in our politics today, but I'll make an exception in the case of Wilson, who's never been shy about the term. He called Bush a "liar" and he called Cheney a "lying sonofabitch," on stage at a John Kerry rally in Iowa.
Saddam wanted yellowcake for one reason: to strike at his neighbors in the region, and beyond that at Britain, America and his other enemies. In other words, he wanted the uranium in order to kill you.
The obvious explanation for Wilson's deceit about what he found in Africa is that his hatred of Bush outweighed everything else. Or as the novelist and Internet maestro Roger L. Simon put it, "He is a deeply evil human being willing to lie and obfuscate for temporary political gain about a homicidal dictator's search for weapons-grade uranium."
Technically, it's weaponizable uranium, not "weapons grade." But that's the point. Simon isn't the expert, and, as Ambassador Wilson trumpets loudly and often, he is. This isn't a case of another Michael Moore, court buffoon to the Senate Democrats, or Whoopi Goldberg, has-been potty-mouth to John Kerry. They're in show biz; what do they know?
But Wilson does know; he went there, he talked to officials, and he lied about America's national security in order to be the anti-Bush crowd's Playmate of the Month. Either he's profoundly wicked or he's as deranged as that woman on the Paris Metro last week who falsely claimed to have been the victim of an anti-Semitic attack. The Paris crazy was unmasked within a few days, but the Niger crazy was lionized for a full year.
Some of us are on record as dismissing Wilson in the first bloom of his unmerited celebrity. But John Kerry was taken in -- to the point where he signed him up as an adviser and underwrote his Web site. What does that reveal about Mister Nuance and his superb judgment? He claims to be able to rebuild America's relationships with France, and to have excellent buddy-to-buddy relations with French political leaders. Yet anyone who's spent 10 minutes in Europe this last year knows that virtually every government there believes Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa. Is Kerry so uncurious about America's national security he can't pick up the phone to his Paris pals and get the scoop firsthand? For all his claims to be Monsieur Sophisticate, there's something hicky and parochial in his embrace of an obvious nutcake for passing partisan advantage.
Any Democrats and media types who are in the early stages of yellowcake fever and can still think clearly enough not to want dirty nukes going off in Seattle or Houston -- or even Vancouver or Rotterdam or Amman -- need to consider seriously the wild ride Yellowcake Joe took them on. An ambassador, in Sir Henry Wootton's famous dictum, is a good man sent abroad to lie for his country. This ambassador came home to lie to his. And the Dems and the media helped him do it.
I hope Mark Steyn's talents are used in the next administration! We are always looking for the best and brightest!
Bookmark bump.
BUSH LIED!! Not.BLAIR LIED!!! Not.
But it turns out JOE WILSON LIED! PEOPLE DIED. Of embarrassment mostly. At least I'm assuming that's why the New York Times, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, PBS drone Bill Moyers and all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they've previously given the hold-the-front-page treatment, too.
These rascals in the media. The 'RATS best friends. G-r-r-r-r !
Also see:
5.56mm
Pray for W and Our Troops
Wilson didn't get the respect and promotion he wanted. So he settled for revenge and RAT money.
He also is supposed to appear on The Newshour with Lehrer on Monday, opposite someone who will debate him.
Too bad there isn't some way to assure that if we are struck by the terrorist again, only the idiots will die. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You and I will die along with them.
Wilson also claimed that someone high up in the Bush admin, and he fingered Karl Rove, had leaked his wife's name to Bob Novak as a CIA operative. Turns out HE, himself, was the one who told Novak his wife was in the CIA.
Comments to
restorehonesty@johnkerry.com
<< I hope Mark Steyn is on President Bush's ping list. >>
I pray President Bush is on Pokey's!
[Thanks for the ping, Pokes]
BUMPping
Did I get that whole ping list thing backwards?
No, it's because they know that these shows are pre-taped and any comment they make will just be edited out. You don't really believe that the media was suckered do you?
OH, yeah. I liked the lie that said his wife didn't arrange his trip, when in fact she did in a memo that has now come out..............joewilson, the liar said she had nothing to do with his trip. LOL, he lied over and over again....
We now see who actually was lieing to buffer whose agenda, and it was not Bush....as 6 independant intelligence reports verify. Case closed. Wilson is a son of a bitch (if Steyn can write it, so can I) So are the Democrats in Washington. So is the prostitute old media. Despicable. The incident would be very sad if it weren't so serious.
The media controls what is aired. And morning shows are recorded. That is why they air at different times in different cities. If someone says something the media doesn't like they don't air it.
They don't attack like Democrats because the media won't air it!!!!
First, I'm wondering if Wilson can be indicted for intentionally creating an intelligence failure when there wasn't one. Afterall, his claiming that Iraq's attempts to buy uranium were false put everyone's life in jeopardy. By spreading lies that Saddam hadn't tried to gain "yellowcake," it helped create a false sense of security in the country. It also put President Bush's life even more in jeopardy because the President was painted as a liar and a deceiver to the whole world. Frankly, I think there might be some law on the books that would apply to Mr. Wilson. The guy is a security risk run amok. Like Saddam, he's his own WMD.
Second, I went to the Wilson website (http://restorehonesty.com/) and sent the following email to Joe:
Thanks Joe! For the ball-faced lies. For selling a bill of goods that turned out to be false. For creating an intelligence failure when there wasn't one. For being a superb rip-off artist. You'll go down in history with the Times' Jayson Blair and the famous P.T. Barnum. I'm sure your wife enjoys going to work everyday, and having people point fingers at her saying: "She's the one married to that snake oil salesman." Hope you've got some money stashed for a rainy day, because although I'm no meteorologist, I can see some stormy days ahead for you son. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Maybe Teresa Heinz-Kerry could hire you as an investigator for her 57 overseas Heinz factories.
I signed it in full, but have left my name off to post here.
Excellent! Let's hope they don't select a "Republican" like David Gergen who is obsessed with being liked by the press.
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