{"id":4823,"date":"2005-07-27T11:28:12","date_gmt":"2005-07-27T15:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4823.html"},"modified":"2005-07-27T11:28:12","modified_gmt":"2005-07-27T15:28:12","slug":"proof-that-plame-participated-in-anti-bush-activity-while-working-for-the-cia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/proof-that-plame-participated-in-anti-bush-activity-while-working-for-the-cia\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Proof&#8217; that Plame &#8216;participated in anti-Bush activity while working for the CIA&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a case study in how the Republican Noise Machine works. It&#8217;s almost funny.<\/p>\n<p>As Salon&#8217;s Katharine Mieszkowski <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/politics\/war_room\/index.html\">noted<\/a>, Time magazine mentioned briefly this week, in a larger article about the Plame scandal, that Joseph Wilson and his wife <a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/nation\/article\/0,8599,1087227,00.html\">attended a Bruce Springsteen concert<\/a> last fall. The event was sponsored by America Coming Together as part of the group&#8217;s effort to defeat the Bush-Cheney campaign.<\/p>\n<p>This led the conservative New York Post to use this trivial nugget and turn it into a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/news\/nationalnews\/50913.htm\">stand-alone story<\/a> &#8212; under the headline, &#8220;Plame&#8217;s Anti-W Money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>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 &#8220;retired,&#8221; because, as a covert agent for the CIA, Plame wasn&#8217;t in a position to state her actual job. The Post article suggests this deception is problematic because &#8220;federal rules require a political-action committee to ask all donors to list their employers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Helping the story along, the Fox News Channel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,163777,00.html\">has picked up<\/a> the New York Post article, running it in full on the FNC website, and explaining to its audience that this tidbit of information is &#8220;the first revelation that Plame participated in anti-Bush political activity while working for the CIA.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, these guys don&#8217;t wear desperation well.<\/p>\n<p>First, CIA agents are allowed to contribute to political campaigns and causes. Second, Plame, like every other undercover agent, can&#8217;t list her actual job on FEC filings. Third, wanting to see Bruce Springsteen is hardly evidence of participating in &#8220;anti-Bush&#8221; political activities.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, <i>none of this matters<\/i>. Plame could have burned a flag while singing the Soviet national anthem on the steps on the Capitol and it wouldn&#8217;t change this scandal in the slightest. The White House leaked classified information to cover up their lies about Iraq. Plame&#8217;s political contributions and taste in music doesn&#8217;t change that fact. <\/p>\n<p>Do you suppose the conservatives even realize how much they&#8217;re embarrassing themselves?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a case study in how the Republican Noise Machine works. It&#8217;s almost funny. As Salon&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}