Pod: Don’t Blame It on the Brain

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:30:00 -0400

Yesterday, while Scott McClellan was being jumped by a mob of wilding reporters, it must've felt as if the Bush administration didn't have a friend in the world. Did anyone who worked in the media have anything nice to say about Karl Rove's alleged leaking of Valerie Plame's name?

Anyone? Little help?

Thankfully, John "Norman's Son" Podhoretz, the self-appointed ambassador from Bush Country, has come to Rove's defense in today's New York Post. And much like O.J. Simpson, he's going in search of the real perpetrators: As it turns out, The Architect isn't guilty of anything. He's actually a hero!

According to Podhoretz's SCANDAL IMPLOSION, if anyone's guilty of anything here, it's Valerie Plame's husband Joseph Wilson for padding his credentials and lying "repeatedly." In fact, the op-ed shows us, Rove didn't commit a crime—he exposed one:

This Rove-Cooper conversation discredits Wilson, not Plame. In fact, nothing we know so far was done either with the purpose of exposing or even the knowledge that these remarks would be exposing an undercover CIA operative.

But Plame's undercover status at the time was and is a little questionable in any case. How undercover could she have been when her name was published at the time as part of Joseph Wilson's own biography online (see cpsag.com/our_team/wilson.html)?

So if the offense wasn't against Plame, what of the offense against Wilson? There was no offense. As many of Joe Wilson's own hottest defenders would no doubt argue in relation to President Bush, exposing a liar is not only not a crime, it's a public service.

Can a Presidential Medal of Honor for Rove be far behind? If so, perhaps Podhoretz would volunteer to polish it.

—Matt Haber

Observer » Pod: Don’t Blame It on the Brain

Pod: Don’t Blame It on the Brain