Bullsh!t.
By trying to make it appear that the Administration didn't know that Plame was covert, it provides cover to them and their blatant disregard for the nation. The existence of a State Department memo with information pertaining to Valerie Plame marked with "S" for "Secret" is conveniently overlooked -- or deliberately ignored. Remember this?
A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.The claim that those involved had no knowledge of Plame's status doesn't change the criminality, but it is a dangerous point to leave unchallenged -- they knew, and did it anyway, which makes the whole mess a lot more heinous. Challenge them on this, and on every talking point. Give them no cover, as they did the same for Mrs. Wilson.
Keep in mind the words of mcjoan from her piece "A Bad Bet":
like in every other example of trying to work with this administration and its supporters, compromise becomes capitulationNo more.
They cry "Clinton did it too!" and the talking point is propagated.
No more.
From http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/3/15/162430/049
28 U.S.C. 541. During the Reagan and Clinton Administrations, Presidents Reagan and Clinton did not seek to remove and replace U.S. Attorneys they had appointed whose four-year terms had expired, but instead permitted such U.S. Attorneys to serve indefinitely under the holdover provision.There likely are several explanations for this: In some instances, Presidents Reagan and clinton may have been pleased with the work of the U.S. Attorneys, who after all, they had appointed. In other instances; Presidents Reagan and Clinton may simply have been unwilling to commit the resources necessary to remove the U.S. Attorneys, find suitable replacements (i.e. receive the "advice" of the home-state Senators), complete background investigations and secure Senate confirmations.
There are practical obstacles to removing and replacing U.S. Attorneys. Fires, wholesale removal of U.S. Attorneys would cause significant disruption to the work of the Department of Justice. Second, individual U.S. Attorneys often may be opposed to the President's determinations to remove the U.S. Attorney. Third, a suitable replacement must be found in consultation iwth the home-state Senator, the difficulty of which would vary from state to state. Fourth, a background investigation must be completed on the replacement -- as task often complicated if the outgouing U.S. Attorney remains if office. Fifth, after nomination, the Senate must confirm the replacement.
Emphasis mine.
They all clean house when they get into office. But only Bush attempted to clean house in his second term, AND his justifications were due to purely partisan political reasons -- the US Attorneys that he himself had appointed would not compromise their positions by engaging in unwarranted investigations just to impugn Democrats or extend the Republican agenda, so they got canned. Not for "performance" reasons related to not doing their jobs, but because they would not compromise their integrity for the Bush political agenda.
That we must see this play out, and still the sycophants bleat their pablum, and still the outcry and challenge is not swift and severe, is the very definition of lunacy.
No More.
Do these words, again the words of William Lloyd Garrison, ring with the sound of righteous indignation, or appear to encourage compromise -- not only political, but ideological?
"I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD."
With these words to fan the flames of passion for truth, justice and integrity to strengthen us, can we not now insist on pushing back against the poisoned temptation to compromise and attempt to salvage the soul of our nation?
Our rights and freedoms have been compromised in the name of security, yet those who have called upon us for this sacrifice are the very architects of our insecurity. The collapse of an entire intelligence network that focused on matters of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and the unabashed exposure of a covert member of the CIA has been reduced to talking points and attempts by the Republicans in Congress to redirect the dialogue back to others. They attempt to focus on what the CIA could have or should have done to better prevent such an outing; that's important, but it pales in comparison to the arrogance with which the outing itself was planned and executed by the White House for political reasons. And, even more damning, those political reasons just happened to be the misleading of the American Public and the world into an unnecessary war.
Do NOT allow them to change the station, the channel, the dialogue or the topic. Confront, address, dissect and destroy the talking points, then move onward to the issues at hand.
Give them no quarter, no cover.
Our liberties are at stake. Remember Thomas Jefferson, who said this --
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."and add to that these additional words of Mr. Garrison:
"Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.Our nation is held in a net of our own making; we, and our Congress, failed to act earlier, before the net was cast and tied down. Now, our liberties, and those of each and every person snatched off the street in a foreign nation by our government, are imperiled.
Give them no cover. Allow them no peace. Confont their attempts to bolster the image of those who have betrayed us, and let them know that in their efforts to protect their party and their masters, they are complicit in the crimes that continue.
To tyrants, and to their army of prevaricators, give no quarter.
Always keep in mind these words, too, from Mahatma Ghandi:
"Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS."
