It's the disclosure, stupid
Jul. 15th, 2005 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieSo the Karl Rove slime machine is in full-force media defense mode, filling the airwaves with all kinds of misinformation, irrelevancies, and downright lies in an attempt to obfuscate the basic fact that Karl Rove disclosed Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative to a journalist.
That's it, pure and simple. That is the fundamental fact, and everything else is just sound and fury, signifying the administration's realization that if the American people really get their heads wrapped around that fact, the most successful Republican political architect of the last fifteen years is history. So they wail and cry and throw out a gazillion alternate takes on the situation, sliming all their opposition and potential opposition, hoping that all the noise and muck drowns out any really effective discovery and statement of this fact. Why not; it's worked before.
Let me repeat the core fact: Karl Rove disclosed Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative to a journalist.
No matter how you attempt to slice it, that was wrong.
At best, it was beyond dumb and incredibly irresponsible. Frankly, I don't buy that it was accidental, or that he was just confirming something others already knew without realizing what that meant (i.e., he didn't realize that confirming this fact for the press might be a problem). I don't underestimate Rove's intelligence that much, or his malice. He's pulled crap like this for years and never been nailed for it. But even if it was accidental, he still screwed up big time, and he should lose his job for it. If you or I screwed up in our jobs in a similar fashion, we'd be kibble.
At worst, it was treason. I doubt Rove saw it that way; somewhere deep down he probably believes that everything he does is for the "good of the country" by way of being good for his party. But I do believe he knowingly blew her cover for partisan purposes, and that he thought that he could get away with it, and that for more than two years, he has.
It remains to be seen whether he will continue to do so. By any but the most partisan and blind-loyalty estimation, he shouldn't. But we live in an America where all truth is political and relativistic in a way that serves no one's long-term best interests. Honest fact-finding is irrelevant. Facts are irrelevant. It's all about the noise.
I really hope the American public proves me overly cynical on this point, and that Rove is forced out through the sheer weight of the public's outrage over his actions. It certainly won't be because of any moral outrage on the part of the President, all his tough talk in 2003 about firing anyone who leaked the name of a CIA operative to the press to the contrary.
That's it, pure and simple. That is the fundamental fact, and everything else is just sound and fury, signifying the administration's realization that if the American people really get their heads wrapped around that fact, the most successful Republican political architect of the last fifteen years is history. So they wail and cry and throw out a gazillion alternate takes on the situation, sliming all their opposition and potential opposition, hoping that all the noise and muck drowns out any really effective discovery and statement of this fact. Why not; it's worked before.
Let me repeat the core fact: Karl Rove disclosed Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative to a journalist.
No matter how you attempt to slice it, that was wrong.
At best, it was beyond dumb and incredibly irresponsible. Frankly, I don't buy that it was accidental, or that he was just confirming something others already knew without realizing what that meant (i.e., he didn't realize that confirming this fact for the press might be a problem). I don't underestimate Rove's intelligence that much, or his malice. He's pulled crap like this for years and never been nailed for it. But even if it was accidental, he still screwed up big time, and he should lose his job for it. If you or I screwed up in our jobs in a similar fashion, we'd be kibble.
At worst, it was treason. I doubt Rove saw it that way; somewhere deep down he probably believes that everything he does is for the "good of the country" by way of being good for his party. But I do believe he knowingly blew her cover for partisan purposes, and that he thought that he could get away with it, and that for more than two years, he has.
It remains to be seen whether he will continue to do so. By any but the most partisan and blind-loyalty estimation, he shouldn't. But we live in an America where all truth is political and relativistic in a way that serves no one's long-term best interests. Honest fact-finding is irrelevant. Facts are irrelevant. It's all about the noise.
I really hope the American public proves me overly cynical on this point, and that Rove is forced out through the sheer weight of the public's outrage over his actions. It certainly won't be because of any moral outrage on the part of the President, all his tough talk in 2003 about firing anyone who leaked the name of a CIA operative to the press to the contrary.
dunning Rove
Date: 2005-07-16 03:09 am (UTC)From Nixon to Clinton, we've maxed the testing of what special prosecutors can do. They have nasty after-effects.
I say the DC Dems should sabre-rattle and trade the beheading for a dem player to be named later when he/she puts the foot in it.
The real need is not slime brushing but vision-building. The Pubs have dissappointed their base and slimed themselves. But we can take advantage of their ineptitude at the polls only with powerful, positive marketing. Exactly what kind of pie in the sky, chicken in the pot are we working for? I'm too old and cynical to know. You young-old ones are the hope, or we'll mutter from the ranks of the loyal opposition for a generation.
bsBender