Here’s a case study in how the Republican Noise Machine works. It’s almost funny.
As Salon’s Katharine Mieszkowski noted, Time magazine mentioned briefly this week, in a larger article about the Plame scandal, that Joseph Wilson and his wife attended a Bruce Springsteen concert last fall. The event was sponsored by America Coming Together as part of the group’s effort to defeat the Bush-Cheney campaign.
This led the conservative New York Post to use this trivial nugget and turn it into a stand-alone story — under the headline, “Plame’s Anti-W Money.”
Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame last fall gave a campaign contribution to go toward an anti-Bush fund-raising concert starring Bruce Springsteen, it was revealed Tuesday night.
In fact, the New York Post highlights the fact that Plame, in buying tickets to the Springsteen show, had to report this as a political donation. She listed her occupation on FEC paperwork as “retired,” because, as a covert agent for the CIA, Plame wasn’t in a position to state her actual job. The Post article suggests this deception is problematic because “federal rules require a political-action committee to ask all donors to list their employers.”
Helping the story along, the Fox News Channel has picked up the New York Post article, running it in full on the FNC website, and explaining to its audience that this tidbit of information is “the first revelation that Plame participated in anti-Bush political activity while working for the CIA.”
Honestly, these guys don’t wear desperation well.
First, CIA agents are allowed to contribute to political campaigns and causes. Second, Plame, like every other undercover agent, can’t list her actual job on FEC filings. Third, wanting to see Bruce Springsteen is hardly evidence of participating in “anti-Bush” political activities.
And finally, none of this matters. Plame could have burned a flag while singing the Soviet national anthem on the steps on the Capitol and it wouldn’t change this scandal in the slightest. The White House leaked classified information to cover up their lies about Iraq. Plame’s political contributions and taste in music doesn’t change that fact.
Do you suppose the conservatives even realize how much they’re embarrassing themselves?