Next, the “African Junket” excuse.
We hear that “Joe Wilson’s trip to Africa was of no importance – it was just a “junket” arranged by his wife, who worked for the CIA.
I suppose by this we are asked to imagine the following conversation, chez Wilson:
Val: “Honey, how would you like to get away from the house for a few days – take a little vacation on the CIA’s tab? I’ll just stay home and take care of the twin babies all by myself.”
Joe: “Great! Where shall I go? Rio for the Carnivale? Paris for the Opera? The Riviera? Moscow to see the Bolshoi Ballet?”
Val: “No, this will be really special: an all expense paid luxurious “junket” to Niamey, Niger, the world-renowned “garden-spot of Africa.’”
Joe: “Oh, Wow! When do I leave?”
Don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon stay at home. More so, if my wife were Valerie Plame.
Then we are told that Joe Wilson wasn’t really qualified for the job. No matter that he spoke fluent French, the official language of Niger, that he served as the U.S. ambassador to the neighboring country of Gabon, that he had spent twenty-three distinguished years in government service for which he was awarded citations from, among others, President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Finally, the “Who Knew?” Complaint.
Tom Davis, ranking Republican member of the Waxman Committee, expects us to believe that none of the many individuals who passed word of Plame’s CIA employment around the White House, the State Department and the Washington Press corps, knew, or thought to ask the CIA, whether or not she was a covert agent, and further, whether any harm might come from disclosing her name to the public. When word circulated among that select group that “Wilson’s wife works for the CIA,” did it occur to no one that it might be best to assume covert status, until and unless assured otherwise by the CIA? Hadn’t they heard that “loose lips sink ships”? Karl Rove apparently had, when he told Time’s Matt Cooper that “I’ve already said too much.” And when, in his infamous column of July 14, 2003, Robert Novak identified Plame as “an agency [CIA] operative on weapons of mass destruction,” and when the CIA begged him not to publish this information, could he have possibly believed that Plame was just a “desk jockey?” What on earth was he thinking?
And why is Robert Novak still at large?
What’s next?
With the official cover story on Plamegate reduced to ruins, what lies ahead? Full White House disclosure? Appropriate firings? Apologies to the Wilsons?
Don’t be silly!
There will be a frantic Bushevik search for new defenses. Here are some possibilities:
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