April 9, 2006

Liking Leaking

Hatched by Dafydd
President Bush was right to approve the declassification of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. Presidents are authorized to declassify sensitive material, and the public benefits when they do. But the administration handled the release clumsily, exposing Mr. Bush to the hyperbolic charges of misconduct and hypocrisy that Democrats are leveling.

So sayeth... the Wall Street Journal? The Washington Times? George Krauthammer? Charles Will?

None of the above: so sayeth the Washington Post, in an editorial [free registration required] -- not an opinion piece, not a column, but an official, unsigned editorial -- in today's paper.

[Say... when was the last time an editorial in the Post began with the four words, "President Bush was right?"]

That is the opening paragraph, and it just keeps getting better and better:

There was nothing illegal or even particularly unusual about that; nor is this presidentially authorized leak necessarily comparable to other, unauthorized disclosures that the president believes, rightly or wrongly, compromise national security....

Each time the [Joe Wilson] case surfaces, opponents of the war in Iraq use it to raise a different set of charges, so it's worth recalling the previous iterations. Mr. Wilson originally claimed in a 2003 New York Times op-ed and in conversations with numerous reporters that he had debunked a report that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger and that Mr. Bush's subsequent inclusion of that allegation in his State of the Union address showed that he had deliberately "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraq threat." The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.

The editorial goes on to note that, contrary to the wild (should I say "hyperbolic?") claims by Wilson that Bush leaked the Plame Name to take revenge on Sneaky Joe -- for speaking truth to power, no doubt -- Special Council Patrick J. Fitzgerald "has reported no evidence to support Mr. Wilson's charge," despite years of investigations.

This is about as close as a newspaper concerned about liability can come to saying what I will say openly: Joe Wilson is a liar; his wife is a liar; they lied about every particular of this case; and everybody who supported them was either a liar or a fool (more accurately, a tool -- a tool of the Left's obsession with "getting" George W. Bush).

If the epicenter of Bush Derangement Syndrom is the 2000 presidential election in Florida, then l'Affaire Plame is at least the center of the biggest aftershock. It is truly momentous for the Washington Post, of all papers, to finally come out and admit that the charges were nothing but lies wrapped in falsehoods surrounded by mendacity.

Is the liberal left beginning the slow path to recovery? Alcoholics are urged, first of all, to admit they have a problem; without taking that first step, you cannot be cured. Think of Cynthia McKinney (D-Pluto), who has still not even admitted yet that she personally did something wrong. (Her tearful "apology" was almost entirely in the passive voice, as if the "misunderstanding" simply sprang from the ether around her, emanations from her rather wide penumbra.)

In this editorial, the Post at long last begins to diagnose the sickness that permeates the Left, the miasmic fever that by now afflicts most of the Democratic Party with delusional ravings and conspiracy mongering that would embarass even Louis Farrakhan.

Let us hope this is the first step on their road to recovery; that they will find their wits about the great issues of the day -- in particular, the war against jihadi terrorism. I want to hear the Democrats acknowledge, as do those on the Left who are actually honest (such as Chris Hitchens), that the Taliban were psychotic theocrats and Saddam Hussein a fascist dictator... and that overthrowing both was just and necessary. I would feel far less apprehensive about the Democrats in Congress if they admitted that we were right to dethrone Hussein, and they complained only about the particular strategic decisions -- which can be discussed rationally and by presenting evidence on both sides.

Then I wouldn't worry that one bad election could doom America to decades of horrific terrorist attacks.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 9, 2006, at the time of 3:14 PM

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Tracked on April 10, 2006 5:37 AM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: rightonq

ok, wait a minute, you've gone WAY TOO FAR. First, this would in no way embarass the likes of "Bush blew up the levees" Farrakhan. Second, the lefties will not be saying - "Wow, Bush was right", but rather "See, the WaPo is a tool for the Bushies."

Excellent post! Thanks for directing us to it!

The above hissed in response by: rightonq [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 9, 2006 4:31 PM

The following hissed in response by: Terrye

I am speechless. Perhaps the end of days is upon us.

The above hissed in response by: Terrye [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 9, 2006 7:23 PM

The following hissed in response by: CroolWurld

>lies wrapped in falsehoods surrounded by mendacity
With a creamy nougat center! You mustn't forget the nougat.

The above hissed in response by: CroolWurld [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2006 4:24 AM

The following hissed in response by: Big D

Democrats will start to win elections if they ever begin to resort to rationality. The Republicans have indeed been fortunate in their opponents.

The above hissed in response by: Big D [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2006 9:25 AM

The following hissed in response by: MTF

The dailykos threads on this editorial are highly entertaining. Wilson's response is too.

The above hissed in response by: MTF [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2006 10:05 AM

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