It is cool about your HS, I'll give you that. But as to the "wild goose chase comment... GC, I'm sure that some member's of TPS who may themselves be prosecutors (or whom have worked for prosecutors--yours truly) are quite familiar with the dynamic of knowing that something really wrong, unjust, what have you, was done, and consequently trying their damndest to use the law as best they can to remedy the situation.
I'm sure that some [members] of TPS who may themselves be prosecutors . . . are quite familiar with the dynamic of knowing that something really wrong, unjust, what have you, was done . . .
About the only thing about which I agree is that there was some sort of leak, and that there may be some sort of violation of law based on revelation of low-level classified information. There are, however, many variables here. For instance, I have no doubt that someone leaked Valerie Plame's name to the press, but I do doubt that (a) she was in any way a covert operative (she was a Metro D.C. bureaucrat working for the CIA, and one who used her political connections to get her Democrat husband sent on the "fact-finding mission" to Niger that started this whole mess), (b) it was ordered by the president or vice president, and/or (c) this is even remotely an impeachable offense.
Furthermore, your argument that something seriously wrong occurred is dramatically undercut by the fact that Wilson -- the man so supposedly concerned about his own and his wife's safety -- has been whoring himself and his wife in the media since first making his accusations against the Bush administration. The juxtaposition between his accusations and his actions is striking, don't you think?
1) His "accusations" are true, or, before you go on trying to split hairs 20x over, indicated (as has been painstakingly well-documents) that the Bushies were--at best, playing fast and loose with and politicizing intel to meet their predetermined policy decisions.
2) His wife was not posing as a Madame in Bangkok, no, but she was under non-official cover (i.e., she had a false identity, job, tax forms, etc.). To anyone outside the CIA she was somebody else. Her neighbors, and more importantly, people who she dealt with around the world (on WMD issues no less), thought she was someone else. Her career as she knew it was effectively ruined. Moreover, there were undoubtedly people around the world--sources, etc., whose lives were then jeopardized for having been found dealing with her.
3)I hope the Wilsons go on every talk show and magazine cover they can...I mean she had to have been at least a GS-14...making what, $125K+ year?
4) Like him or not, Wilson was a former ambassador in Africa, and undoubtedly had contacts there. The argument that this was some plum, nepotistic assignment is ludicris. (cf. the Bush family).
5) Defend them all you want, but I know deep down it makes you sick to your stomach.
In response:
1) Joe Wilson has a lot for which to answer, in my opinion. His "investigation" consisted of having tea with governmental officials and conducting an at-best perfunctory inquiry about the presence of uranium in Niger. To say that he has been fighting a battle to restore his credibility (which it seems is what you are saying) is to incorrectly assume that Wilson had any credibility in the first place.
2) I have yet to see anything -- anything -- indicating that Valerie Plame had a covert function within the CIA. She was openly known in Washington, D.C., which is not exactly the kind of profile you keep if you are trying to remain covert; put more bluntly, if she was a covert agent, she was a very, very bad one who deserved to be taken out of circulation. And there is conflicting information about whether Wilson may have "outed" his own wife well before the administration allegedly did.
3) Again, to reiterate: if Plame was a covert agent, and Wilson maintains that she has been endangered by her outing, don't you think it is grotesquely irresponsible for him to galavant in front of the cameras alongside his wife's mug? (Who knows? Maybe he is actively rooting for her death -- he might get a better book deal out of it.)
4) I wasn't even going to bring this up, but since you opened the door:
It increasingly appears as if Plame abused her position within the CIA to get her husband selected to go on the Niger mission. The Bush administration should have had the wherewithal to put the kibosh on that, but then again, the only thing for which you can really blame the administration is making the egregious error of assuming that a former Democrat ambassador could put the well being of the United States ahead of his own social and financial advancement.
5) Finally:
Defend [the Bush administration] all you want, but I know deep down it makes you sick to your stomach.
The only thing that truly makes me sick to my stomach in this whole sordid affair is the fact that Joe Wilson still gets as much attention as he does. The man is an overambitious clown who cannot keep his tall tales straight. I look forward to the day when he tells one whopper too many and shatters what is left of his already tattered credibility.
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