Sliming Wolfowitz

Slate ^ | 17 April 2007 | Christopher Hitchens

[Kitten Festival]

We know no spectacle so ridiculous," wrote Macaulay about the vilification of Lord Byron, "as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality." Change the word "ridiculous" to "contemptible," and the words "British public" to "American press," and you have some sense of the eagerness for prurience, the readiness for slander, and the utter want of fact-checking that have characterized Paul Wolfowitz and Shaha Riza as if they were not only the equivalent of Byron seducing his half-sister, but as if they were financing their shameless lasciviousness out of the public purse and the begging bowls of the wretched of the earth.

I ought probably to say at once that I know both Wolfowitz and Riza slightly, and have known the latter for a number of years. Anyone in Washington who cares about democracy in the Muslim world is familiar with her work, at various institutions, in supporting civil-society activists in the Palestinian territories, in Iran, in the Gulf, and elsewhere. The relationship between the two of them is none of my damn business (or yours), but it has always been very discreet, even at times when Wolfowitz, regularly caricatured as a slave of the Israeli lobby, might perhaps have benefited from a strategic leak about his Arab and Muslim companion.

[Kitten Festival]

Here's one for Fifi!

Fifi ping!

[billorites]

Hitchens knows how to administer a spanking.

[Star Traveler]

I see that the Virginia Tech shooting has taken Wolfowitz off the front page and practically off Free Republic...

Regards,
Star Traveler

[Kitten Festival]

Shouldn’t it?

[ozzymandus]

No, it shouldn’t. Believe it or not, there are other things happening in the world. Not everyone is obsessed by the latest flash.

[Star Traveler]

Just an observation...

[Kitten Festival]

?

no idea what you are talking about.

[sauropod]

review

[ozzymandus]

Yeah, you probably don’t.

[Kitten Festival]

feel free to keep gibbering into the wind, then. It might suit you

[ozzymandus]

I was expressing my frustration with the media circus regarding the Virginia Tech massacre, not attacking you personally, and I apologize.

[hgro]

Hitchens can be great but only when he is not defending Wolfie who has trouble keeping his pants zipped up when more important issues should be on his mind.

[Kitten Festival]

Sorry, I totally misunderstood. My apologies to you

[ozzymandus]

Thanks, I’m just in a bad mood listening to all the crap on the media today. Time to go outdoors and get some fresh air.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Wolfy not only has trouble in that regard but supports a major expansion of the foreign aid hat-hole. Who needs him!

[Kitten Festival]

Does anyone ever notice that the ONLY people who defend wolfowitz are his friends and cronies? Nobody else does, just the pals with whom he goes to cocktail parties with.

[Kitten Festival]

I agree

[Puzzleman]

Thanks for the excellent post. Here's a link to an article by Clarice Feldman in the same vein.

[Kitten Festival]

Was just going to return to the Sliming Wolfowitz post. It occurred to me that it was amusing they way Hitches made up the fact about Wolfowitz and his girl being supposedly really discreet about their relationship. He certainly invented that - his girlfriend's neighbors,interviewed by the Washington Post, complained that they were loud, ostentatious and very visible about their relationship, see what the neighbors said in the sixth paragraph here. Knowing how discreet Washington can be, you have to be really loud and obnoxious and alienating and selfcentered if that's what your neighbors are saying about you. Very stupid not to invite them to the party too.

[Kitten Festival]

Latest from the New York Times:

Mr. Hitchens, a one-time pariah for his support of the Iraq invasion and his savaging of Mother Teresa, still serves as something of a social arbiter in Washington. And following the strange-bedfellows theme, Paul Wolfowitz, the embattled World Bank president, was chatting amiably in a roomful of journalists at Mr. Hitchens’ home.

I knew he was lying about his opening claim to only know Wolfie "slightly"! I was right! Man, is Hitch ever boldfaced about his lies! Makes you wonder what else he was lying about, he certainly lied about Mother Teresa, too.