I think Wilson meant to leave the impression early on that Cheney 'sent' him to Niger where he sipped tea.
But he was careful not to say that explicitly. (I first noticed your posts because of your insistance that he never 'said' that Cheney sent him.)
Implying that Cheney sent him but then (Cheney)backtracked and had his wife's position exposed in retribution for not toeing the party line was the beginning of Wilson's public tiff with the administration, if my memory serves.
When I first read your posts, I thought you were perhaps a partisan on Joe's team. I have since concluded that you are instead a very careful reader and user of language, which is why I tend to look for your take on these newer discoveries.
You agree that Wilson is flogging a red herring (excuse the mixed metaphor lol), but do agree that he consciously created that same herring?
Thanks for your input,
Pinz
I know your take on this is popular here, but I don't buy it. On CNN either the DAY OF his NYT editorial or the DAY AFTER (just can't recall which), he stated flatly that Cheney DID NOT send him, that the CIA did. How exactly that is intended to create a mistaken impression that Cheney sent him is completely lost on me.
No, I think the "he said Cheney sent him" meme is a red herring flogged by Wilson's most adamant critics. Which is baffling to me, because there are other, more substantive lines of attack. Kristof's language was certainly less than precise, but there isn't any reason to think he was simply transcribing Wilson's words. Kristof is a fairly precise writer, and is not just a transcriptionist.
What baffles me more than anything else is that we apparently had an entire WH team, including the Deputy NSA and various high-ranking staffers, spending the coin of the realm and not insubstantial time and effort responding to an op-ed piece by a former State employee that no one had ever heard of before. By elevating Wilson's importance far beyond what it would have been if they ignored him, the WH and their allies who don't know when to put down the megaphone created the myth that is Joe Wilson.
I will say this, though - based on the recent photos, Valerie is quite hot.