Daily Ramblings:
Time To Move On ...07/12/2005 11:28:37 am
It was the mantra during the years of unrelenting scandal emanating from the Clinton White House. Facing credible allegations of obstruction of justice, perjury, as well as sexual predation dating back years and continuing during his time in the White House, the best that President Clinton's defenders could come up with was, "It's time to move on." Indeed, some of his supporters organized themselves into a group called "MoveOn.org," - crowning the concept of "moving on" as their central and guiding principle. Later, when President Clinton moved on out of the White House, and President Bush moved on in, the group retained its name, merely deciding to change what it was intended to convey. Now, it was "time to move on" from President Bush, generally. Their ads during the 2004 election were famous for both their mean spiritedness and lack of efficacy. Altogether, their allegiance to nothing so much as the shifting meanings of "moving on" just about sums up the incoherence, opportunism and intellectual feebleness of the American left these days.
That said ... today I'm buying. With regard to Karl Rove's alleged revelation to a journalist regarding Joseph Wilson's wife, I believe that it is now time to move on. It is time to put the politics of personal destruction behind us, and allow Karl Rove to get back to work for the American people.
In all seriousness, RWB will await the result of the legal proceedings to make any final judgment, but contrast Rove's inarguable cooperation with the prosecutor and the grand jury to the interminable stone-walling of Clinton and some of his aides. It was that evasion and stone-walling that forced us all to go through over a year of lurid Lewinsky coverage, and distracted the President and others in D.C. from effectively carrying out their jobs (and that's putting it kindly). Rove has willingly testified under oath, and early on released the journalists he spoke to from any obligation to confidentiality. He is obviously willing to let this ride on the basis that he did not reveal Valerie Plame's name (he did not even know it) and did not knowingly out her as an undercover CIA agent. It will be for lawyers and judges to argue and apply the law.
Rove was providing some context to the assertions of Joseph Wilson, in the press, to the effect that there was no possibility that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase uranium from Niger - because the administration had sent him to speak to some old buddies there and they had assured him such a thing had not happened. Wilson was portraying himself as the administration's go-to-guy on the subject - as if his own trip to Niger was the sole basis for any determination about uranium and Saddam. By trumpeting his own importance so loudly in the press, he effectively made his wife an issue, because the truth was that he had been recommended within the CIA for that trip to Niger by his wife. In doing that, she unknowingly set the wheels in motion that would end up blowing her cover as a CIA employee. And by going the route of public attacks on the Bush administration (lapped up by the mainstream media), Joseph Wilson made it extremely unlikely that her role would remain a secret.
Was there one person who supplied all the information that made her name and status public, or was it one plus one plus one plus one ending up equalling four? It remains to be seen, but portraying this as some deliberate and vengeful act by Rove is ridiculous. He was talking to journalists, as he's expected to, and providing background context as he knew it, in the usual way. The idea that someone as smart as Rove would knowingly expose an undercover agent is absurd.
Nevertheless, the feeding frenzy in the press will continue. They are always looking for the next Watergate, in addition to the next Vietnam, and doing whatever they can to make both a reality. There's nothing new here. It's time to move on.
Addendum 07/12/2005 12:15:36 pm: And as I was reminded by visitor Mike, there are now 992 days remaining until Sandy Burglar can regain his security clearance.
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