Sliming Joe Wilson Again

(This post also has to do with Bob Menendez though, so that's why his photo appears here.)

I haven’t said much about the NJ U.S. Senate campaign between Dem Bob Menendez and Repug Baby Kean, but it looks like it’s going to be a dead heat to the very end.

This is a ridiculous development because, though I’ve was lukewarm when Gov. Jon Corzine named Menendez to fill his vacated Senate seat, this is absolutely no contest in terms of qualifications for office. Menendez is also a seasoned professional (as shown here), and all Baby Kean is going to do is trade on his name (which has a lot of cred in Jersey) and go “nyaah nyaah, tax and spend liberal, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Hillary, nyaah nyaah,” and that’s going to be his campaign (along with some questionable commenting activity by Kean’s campaign manager).

In the world of corporate media, though, I should point out that the Courier Post carried this column yesterday about Menendez campaigning with Joe Wilson, which must have been a “rip-and-read” special from the Gannett News Service.

I had two main issues with the article (aside from the "controversial" label in the headline - what Wilson has said and done is pretty "black and white" as far as I'm concerned), as shown in these excerpts…

Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador whose attempt to discredit one of Bush's most dire prewar assertions on Iraq's weapons program has become a controversial flash point in the war debate, said the U.S. military should not be used for "wars of choice."

“Attempt” to discredit? The Niger letter about Saddam Hussein trying to buy yellowcake for uranium was a fake, and Wilson stated as such categorically with no proof of the letter’s authenticity offered in response. What is in dispute about that at this point?

Also…

Wilson became part of a complex controversy after publicly challenging a key Bush assertion on Iraq's weapons program.

“Complex”? Try explaining what you’re saying and I’ll decide for myself, OK?

Critics have said Wilson overstated his evidence, but Wilson claimed the administration sought revenge by disclosing his wife's role as a CIA operative to reporters. Recent reports show the first leak to the press came from outside the White House.

This is factually accurate as far as I can tell, but as I mentioned when I criticized Broder about this last week, it is taken completely on faith that, somehow, Richard Armitage, working in the state department, provided the name of Valerie Plame to Bob Woodward independent of the Bush White House (as if ANYTHING in this administration happens without the approval of Karl Rove), with Broder even going as far as to say that Rove was owed an apology (unbelievable). All of this adds up to supporting the typically ridiculous quote from Kean spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker.

By the way, I thought these two entries from the Wikipedia article on Armitage were noteworthy.

On March 2, 2006, bloggers discovered that "Richard Armitage" fit the spacing on a redacted court document, suggesting he was a source for the Plame leak.

On May 10, 2006, Armitage was elected to the board of directors of the ConocoPhillips oil company.

Can you say “quid pro quo,” boys and girls?