Bobo Bloviates As Scooter Skates

As the stench from the commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence continues to emanate from Washington and waft in every direction, who else but David Brooks of the New York Times should come along to thoroughly fluff Dubya for saving one of this cabal’s crooked operatives?

There is so much garbage to refute in Brooks’ column today (Times Select of course - imagine having to pay to read this crap) that I don’t think I could do it properly with at least three separate posts. However, I will do the best I can devoting only one to this chore (freeper “water wet, sky blue” stuff I know from this clown here, but it can’t go unanswered).

Brooks begins by describing Plamegate as “a farce in five acts – the first four were scabrous, disgraceful and absurd. Justice only reared its head at the end.”

Also…

“Mr. Wilson claimed that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to investigate Iraqi purchases in Niger, though that seems not to have been the case. He claimed his trip proved that Iraq made no such attempts, though his own report said nothing of the kind.”

Here is a link to the Times column that Wilson wrote almost four years ago to the day that got Bushco so PO’ed (and as far as the issue of who sent Wilson is concerned, an utterly meaningless point that only the most die-hard of freepers care about, Wilson tells us this)…

After consulting with the State Department's African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.

And regarding alleged “Iraqi purchases in Niger,” as Brooks put it…

The next morning, I met with Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick at the embassy. For reasons that are understandable, the embassy staff has always kept a close eye on Niger's uranium business. I was not surprised, then, when the ambassador told me that she knew about the allegations of uranium (yellowcake, a form of lightly processed ore) sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington. Nevertheless, she and I agreed that my time would be best spent interviewing people who had been in government when the deal supposedly took place, which was before her arrival.

I spent the next eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.

Brooks also slanders Wilson by referring to him as “an inveterate huckster.” Here is a Source Watch link that provides the real story (including this)…

"Joseph C. Wilson, IV served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998, responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He was a principal architect of President Bill Clinton's historic trip to Africa in March 1998 and a leading proponent of the Africa Trade Bill.

"Wilson was the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe, 1995-1997. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1988 to 1991, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. During 'Desert Shield' he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the freeing of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before 'Desert Storm'."

Brooks then goes on to castigate those, including yours truly by association, who appropriately voiced outrage over the baldly partisan political act of outing a covert spy to get revenge on that spy’s husband who had the temerity to challenge Bushco’s highly specious claim about Iraq’s uranium purchase; he also makes a veiled reference to Judith Miller’s imprisonment (and what exactly does that have to do with Libby’s obstruction of an investigation by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald?).

As I said, I have neither the time (nor the desire, actually) to sift through all of Brooks’s misrepresentation and garbage here (including his character assault on Fitzgerald and the trial judge in the case, Reggie Walton), but I will leave you with Brooks’s final words…

The farce is over. It has no significance. Nobody but Libby’s family will remember it in a few weeks’ time. Everyone else will have moved onto other fiascos, other poses, fresher manias.

Here is a link to Patrick Fitzgerald’s reaction in which he notes that Judge Walton followed the sentencing guidelines reasonably in this case, and is actually supported in this by the ruling of the Hangin’ Judge J.R. Supreme Court in Rita v. United States.

And “nobody will remember it in a few weeks time”? Somehow, I think this will be remembered very well on Election Day next November.

And I know some are probably tired of watching this Bill Maher clip about Valerie Plame again, but I think it puts all of this into perspective beautifully.



Josh Marshall also weighs in here (h/t Atrios).

(Also, I was so busy dealing with Brooks that I missed this item in the Times caught by Devilstower at The Daily Kos.)

Update 7/6: This is why David Corn gets paid for this and I don't.