"Angry" Joe Wilson

I thought at first of calling this post "Return Fire," but I noticed Matt Lauer and Jamie Gangel both made sure to identify Joe Wilson as "angry," perhaps in an attempt to hedge. Gangel even concluded her interview with the former career diplomat by citing Dana Milbank's remark vis-a-via Karl Rove and DC ("It's KR's town and everyone else just lives in it," or something like that).

Anyway, here's the transcript, and here's the accompanying article. Both provide links to streaming video for those with plenty of bandwidth.

"Angry" apparently reflects the latest attempts by the GOP slime machine to deflect criticism--slime that has reached, well, Rovian proportions. Billmon, as always, has several noteworthy posts, one of which includes a link to Mark Kleiman's interesting suggestion that Rove might be safe in regards to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act--but might well be in violation of ESPIONAGE statutes, not to mention Obstruction of Justice or Perjury. All in all, it looks like Karl ended up f*&king himself "like no one has ever f*&ked him before."

As for the spin--well, last night PBS treated me to their version of "fair and balanced," mixing and matching Ed Rogers and John Podesta in a sort of higher class version of Shields and Brooks--Rogers had the GOP talking points down (Whiskey Bar aptly calls it the "alternate universe"), while Podesta provided the lukewarm mush on soggy milquetoast that characterizes the Democratic side of the menu these days.

Still, this story continues to show a surprising degree of staying power (despite Rogers more or less pleading with Ifill to kill it--kill it in the next few days). Perhaps that's because Joe Wilson is no pushover. As someone who dealt with Saddam Hussein directly, I can't imagine him flinching under the withering attack of Mayberry Machiavelli spitballs.

Which, by the way, speaks volumes as to this administration. Consider: they have no compunction about lying their way into war. They have no guilt over a blatant attempt to destroy the career of an individual who accomplished admirable work in the Central Intelligence Agency in a sensitive field (indeed, Rove referred to Plame as "fair game"). Playing politics is put on a higher plane than the national security of the nation. They and their neocon fellow travelers routinely display the most callous of attitudes towards the nation's armed forces, ranging from deployment without adequate equipment to basically telling soldiers to fuck off and die--literally.

And, finally, remember that these clowns are the ones who IGNORED warnings of an imminent attack on the United States in 2001 until it was too late. At this point, Rove ought to thank his lucky stars the shit on his shoes is, by comparison, relatively minor (although still potentially a felony). Because in an alternative universe that had any genuine measure of justice, he, his boss, and the administrative cabal would be facing far more serious charges, like war crimes.