Posted on 11/04/2005 3:47:43 AM PST by saveliberty
By Tony Snow
Nov 4, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Harry Reid and Co., in accusing Team Bush of manipulating intelligence, have managed to pioneer an even more egregious abuse of the American political system: the manipulation of ignorance.
Righteous ignorance has become a hallmark of the Howard Dean Democrats: Lacking any sensible doctrine with which to combat the continued growth of American conservatism, they have been reduced to a state of unshakable hysteria, beginning with the conviction that George W. Bush is the most vicious, evil, conniving president in American history.
Bushophobia bobbed to the surface most recently when Harry Reid, abetted by Sen. Dick Durbin, tried to link the recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, to alleged prewar underhandedness by the president, vice president and defense secretary.
Said Reid, "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroyed those who dared challenge its actions."
Unfortunately for the Democratic leader, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald slapped down the Libby-war link: "This indictment is not about the war … not about the propriety of the war … This indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified … this is focused on a narrow transaction."
The manipulation of ignorance continued with Reid's claim of "manufacturing" intelligence -- a phrase often used, but never linked to a specific piece of intelligence or prewar administration statement.
In fact, Democrats were every bit as bellicose as the president before the war. Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller, Carl Levin, Joseph Biden, Joseph Lieberman, and John Edwards (among others) all asserted that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a real threat to American citizens and national interests.
Sen. Rockefeller captured the prevailing sense of urgency when he told his colleagues on Oct. 10, 2002, "I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11, that question is increasingly outdated. It is in the nature of these weapons, and the way they are targeted against civilian populations, that documented capability and demonstrated intent may be the only warning we get. To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? We cannot!"
He added, "The president has rightly called Saddam Hussein's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction a grave and gathering threat to Americans."
Next comes L'Affaire Plame -- the assertion that the administration ferociously "outed" a "covert agent," Valerie Plame.
Joe Wilson himself made his wife a public figure by yowling about her supposedly rough treatment at the hands of the meanies working for the president. But there was no roughing up.
When exposed, she was not "covert" and hadn't been for years. A number of reporters, including Michael Isikoff of Newsweek and Andrea Mitchell of NBC, described her CIA work as an "open secret" in Washington.
In addition, a CIA investigation concluded the Plame revelation didn't place her at risk and didn't compromise any ongoing intelligence operations. As Bob Woodward noted, "there was no physical danger to anyone and there was just some embarrassment."
So why would Democrats create a stir by clearing out the Senate chambers and demanding secret hearings? For the same reason condemned men scowl at executioners: They want to look defiant when facing their doom.
Strategists from the left wing of the party (James Carville, Stan Greenberg and Bob Shrum) and the right-wing (Will Gallston and the Progressive Policy Institute) have concluded that the "We Hate Dubya" faction is destroying the party and that ideas, not insults, drive political movements.
But consider what's taking place. World events seem to be vindicating George W. Bush's vision and tactics. Iraq soon will install an elected, constitutional government. Syria has begun handing over bad guys. Arab nations are taking baby steps toward democracy. Iran has embarked on a campaign of scaredy-cat bellicosity. And Osama bin Laden's henchmen have been reduced to cadging cash from one another.
Does that not provide a stunning contrast to the attempts by Harry Reid et al to discredit the war at the very moment our troops seem to have made real strides toward finishing the job?
Find this story at: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/tonysnow/2005/11/04/174319.html
:-) Your Tony Snow article ping. Sorry that I have to run
Good morning, SL. Thanks for posting this. I at least get a taste of Tony before I have to sub today.
Tony Snow ping list? Please add me bump.
If, as Snow says, the "CIA investigation" proved no outing of Plame, why did the CIA ask the Justice Department for an investigation in the first place? On this point alone there is a need for a House investigation. (Forget the Senate -- the worst since Reconstruction.)
:-)
My pool shooting buddy and his wife...two unabashed libs...are full of glee because they believe President Bush will be impeached because of purposely lying to the American People about the reasons for going to war.
I mentioned the Rockefeller Memo and noticed no hint of comprehension...so I stopped right there and said, "RACK EM!!"
*
YES, House investigation PING
Ping
LOL. That is excellent, Zacs Mom.
I suspect George W. Bush must be feeling a lot of the same things felt by Jesus Christ. Though he's not the sone of God, Bush is a good and decent man who is hated by "old power".
Personally, I have the unshakable conviction that William Jefferson Clinton is the most vicious, evil, conniving president in American history.
Clinton or Carter. Take your pick.
No hint of comprehension....and that is the liberal/socialists down fall, they never research to learn the truth; they seem stuck in and on 2001 with no solutions, just the parroting of proven lies from those that have hijacked their party. Harry Reid’s meltdown and Howard Dean’s mad ramblings are clear signs that the libs have imploded.
We are a military family, and I do not care what the President does, just as long as we are fighting over there and not on our on soil.
Said Reid, "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroyed those who dared challenge its actions."
The ironic factor in the causation of such deluded thought is the internet; responsible for much of the rise in conservatism and challenge of MSM,it is also replete with such paranoid drivel, particularly that Bush ia a one-worlder. I think Reid et al are tapping into this. I know friends who have become sucked in and once done, become caught up in a paradigm, in an obsessive way, that sees all conservative/anti-terror action as further signs of conspiratorial hijacking of liberal concepts of freedom. It's why the left is going further left with nothing positive.I call it IPCS: internet paranoid conspiracy syndrome.
Past democrats do have experience of contriving scenarios for war, Tonkin for one.
Thanx SL.
"Guten Tag"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.