alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

March 7, 2007

Fred Hiatt: Opinionist for Greater Wingnuttia

by AltHippo @ 11:33 am. Filed under wingnuttia

ThinkProgress has a good post up looking at the wingnut talking points in Hiatt’s WaPo editorial. Indeed, it’s important to note that there’s not much in the original editorial that isn’t a wingnut talking point.

To be fair there’s this in the beginning: (WaPo)

The former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney told the FBI and a grand jury that he had not leaked the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame to journalists but rather had learned it from them. But abundant testimony at his trial showed that he had found out about Ms. Plame from official sources and was dedicated to discrediting her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Particularly for a senior government official, lying under oath is a serious offense. Mr. Libby’s conviction should send a message to this and future administrations about the dangers of attempting to block official investigations.

That’s what I refer to as the legitimate part of the editorial. It’s a sound point: since the actions of government officials reflect on their feudal overlords, I mean their administration, they must be particularly scrupulous in their behavior.

This goes to the essence of the problem, and by “problem” I’m really thinking of the Bush administration as a whole: Libby does indeed reflect on Bush’s administration. All too accurately. The Bushies have shown time and time again that they believe that as President, co-President, and Chief Lackey, Bush, Cheney, Rove et al are above the law. Or, more exactly, beyond the law. Since they “make” the law, by definition the law doesn’t apply to them.

If Cheney didn’t agree with Wilson’s “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” he should have had Scooter write a rebuttal, which I’m sure the NYT would have been delighted to punish.

But what would have been the fun in that? Much better to selectively declassify information and leak it to friendly MSM reporters. And, if you can smear the author of the original OpEd, and ruin his wife’s career at the sime time, so much the better. Why, it’s a Rover twofer!

I say that if the jury thought Libby was a fall guy for the sins of the administration, so what? His actions faithfully represented hiss bosses’ views as being above the rest of us.

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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