Rove’s defenders go off the deep end

July 19, 2005

It’s helpful to get a reminder, now and again, as to why watching Fox News can be so painful. My friend D.S. alerted me to FNC’s John Gibson’s latest rant in defense of Karl Rove leaking Valerie Plame’s identity. One has to read it to believe it.

First, to provide context, it’s worth noting that Gibson, just last week, told Fox News viewers that Rove should be given a medal because Plame deserved to have her undercover identity exposed. This week, filling in for Bill O’Reilly, Gibson elaborated on his thoughts to paint the picture of an elaborate liberal conspiracy in which Plame was at the center.

“So, I guess I am to conclude that the Democrats think we aren’t allowed to know that it was a CIA secret agent, Valerie Plame, who recommended her husband to go to Niger to check out what she called a crazy report that Saddam Hussein wanted to buy the nuclear bomb material yellow cake from that country.

“We aren’t allowed to know that her husband got the message he was supposed to debunk this “crazy report?” Do you think we have a right to know that? I think we do. I think we have a right to know how Joe Wilson came to be the guy who was sent off to investigate if Saddam was trying to buy nuclear bomb material.

“Well, Wilson came back and reported that the story was false. The president and vice president didn’t accept his report as the final truth. Think we should know why they rejected his report? Maybe they knew his wife put him up to it and the fix was in.”

The “fix,” as Gibson sees it, was quite a scheme. It’s difficult to decipher the incoherence here, but it seems as if Gibson believes Plame orchestrated to have her husband go to Niger because she secretly wanted to embarrass the White House. Wilson investigated, and under orders from his wife, said Bush’s claims about yellowcake uranium were bogus. He wrote a report for the White House, but fortunately, our cunning president and vice president saw through the plan and ignored Wilson’s conclusions. They’re terribly clever, you know.

Under this hysterical interpretation, Plame isn’t a victim whose career was destroyed because Karl Rove had decided Wilson is a Dem and Plame was “fair game”; she’s a villain who had it coming.

But wait, then Gibson got really incomprehensible.

Gibson went on to note that Dems have criticized the Bush administration for being overly secretive, classifying materials carelessly as part of a broader effort to conceal information from the public.

“Bush keeps a secret, bad. But when the anti-Bush forces insist on secrecy, covert status for the person who lined up a damning report on the reasons for the war in Iraq, that’s OK.

“No. They can’t have it both ways.”

It’s like we’re dealing with a child, isn’t it?

No wonder Fox News viewers are less informed than those who receive their news from every other outlet. I actually feel kind of sorry for them.

Perhaps the kindest thing is to regard today’s Republicans as people afflicted with some sort of mental illness, a kind of sympathetic resonance with our brain-addled President. Sadly, Cheney and the neo-cons are in position to exploit all that weakness to the disadvantage of us all.

  • The Fox News guys need to be taken to court for slander. They have no proof Plame is anything but an exemplary agent in the service of the American people, but they continue to make sh*t up for the sake of tarnishing her name. To use their pulpit as a “news channel” but incessantly make up BS out of whole cloth and pass it off as the truth needs to punished with a punitive suit. A gigantic fine might just be the cork.

  • Gibson is just insane. Last time I read his stuff was awhile back when he was spouting out proof that Saddam was responsible for the Oklahoma City Bombing, and that McVey was just the hired hitman who shouldn’t be held responsible. I believe the link was that the 1993 WTC bombing was orchastrated by Saddam, and that the bomber involved with that had some sort of loose connection with McVey or something; with the first part of that equation cited as definite, and the second part as speculation based upon guesses. So therefore, Saddam must have been responsible for the Oklahoma bombing too. Gibson reasoned that McVey should have gotten a lighter sentence (for only having made the bomb, placing it, and blowing it up), and that Saddam should have gotten most of the blame. Right.

    Some folks on the right are in on the joke, and intentionally deceiving the masses. And some are rubes, believing all they hear. And some folks are like John Gibson: batshit insane, and loving it.

  • Wait so Wilson was working for a secret cabal of CIA analysts determined to debunk the administration claims about WMD in Iraq. That is important.

    Good thing the administration ignored those traitors and went right ahead with the war; otherwise we never would have discovered Saddam’s huge stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, not to mention how close he was to having a nuclear weapon. Of course Wilson and Plame would have been heroes if it turned there really was no threat. Funny how these things work out.

    e

  • “I actually feel kind of sorry for them.”

    I actually feel kind of sorry for us, these mouthbreathing knuckledraggers vote.

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