Supposing that you have conventional views of marriage, then by those views Bill cheated on Hilary, but supposing you have conventional views of patriotism Libby et al., cheated on us all, and not even for fun, but for a miniscule political payback against an _honest_ official. What's worse, in short, if you want to talk this way, betraying your wife or betraying your country?
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> On Jun 19, 2006, at 12:27 PM, ravi wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Today, I had the opportunity to read Cockburn's
> piece at CounterPunch,
> > and what stood out most in his rant was its
> similarity in style to
> > Hitchens' fling rage in all directions with a
> drunken sneer (and hope
> > something sticks).
> >
> > He writes:
> >
> >> The war grinds on, but the pwog Democrats prefer
> to talk about other
> >> matters, such as the fact that Rove is not going
> to be indicted.
> >> Thank God. the left will have to talk about
> something else for a
> >> change. As a worthy hobby horse for the left, the
> whole Plame scandal
> >> has never made any sense. What was it all about
> in the first
> >> analysis? Outing a CIA employee. What’s wrong
> with that?
> >
> >
> > The last sentence alone seems to distance him from
> reality. What is
> > wrong with outing a CIA employee? In the minds of
> the American
> > public, I
> > would think, everything!
>
> Ace is right. It was alternately hilarious and
> revolting to see the
> liberal left getting up in arms about outing a CIA
> employee in
> violation of the law - a law that was passed with
> radical pubs like
> Counterspy and Covert Action in mind. What the hell
> is so sacred
> about preserving the identities of the Ghouls of
> Langley? Even more
> unseemly was the crush that the liberal left
> developed on Joe Wilson,
> who was just the kind of slick functionary who makes
> the empire run.
> What's so great about that?
>
> Seems like a bad idea to sacrifice principles (the
> CIA is a bad thing
> to be opposed whenever possible) for political
> expediency (oh those
> conservatives - so unprincipled!).
>
> > There is also, I think, a confusion of terms, in
> the above. The
> > left has
> > Let us deal with this question: Since 9/11, where
> has been the good
> > news
> > for the Administration? I can think of some
> answers to that, and I
> > invite your criticism:
> >
> > a) Significant increase in Bush poll numbers and
> legitimacy
> > b) Blank cheque from the public for wars and civil
> rights violations
> > c) Huge benefits for friends and the
> infrastructure in general
> > d) Gains in the House and majority in the Senate,
> 2002
> > e) Re-election, by a wider margin, for Bush, 2004
>
> Bush's approval is off its lows, but aside from the
> year after 9/11,
> it's been a straight downtrend. A real opposition
> could do something
> with that.
>
> Doug
>
>
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