WaPo Attacks Joe Wilson

A Washington Post editorial, most likley written by Bob Woodward, not only attempts to exonerate the Bush cabal from outing Valerie Plame for political purposes - it attacks her husband, Joe Wilson, as well.

Mr. Armitage was one of the Bush administration officials who supported the invasion of Iraq only reluctantly. He was a political rival of the White House and Pentagon officials who championed the war and whom Mr. Wilson accused of twisting intelligence about Iraq and then plotting to destroy him. Unaware that Ms. Plame's identity was classified information, Mr. Armitage reportedly passed it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey Smith, who quoted a former colleague of Mr. Armitage.

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue. The partisan clamor that followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been avoided had Mr. Armitage's identity been known three years ago.

That is one huge leap to make considering this litany of evidence compiled by Media Matters to debunk that claim since news of Armitage's role was exposed. As for the idea that all of this might have been avoided...apparently Fitzgerald did know about Armitage's role and had to continue with his investigation regardless - and rightly so.

The fact that Libby lied, resulting in charges of obstruction of justice for which he has yet to be tried, apparently means nothing to the author of that editorial. Why did Libby lie if the outing of Plame was simply a little mistake that should have blown over a long time ago? What WaPo doesn't seem to get is that the outing of an undercover CIA agent is one of the most serious offenses a government can face. If it had been done innocently and inadvertently, that should have come to the fore long ago. But, it didn't. And that suggests there is far more to this complete story than WaPo wants its readers to realize.

And then, WaPo/Woodward has the audacity to blame all of this on Joe Wilson himself:

Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.

No. What's unfortunate is that too many people will actually take this bullshit seriously. I won't even begin to debunk it. Anyone who's followed the case or has any common sense for that matter can see this for what it is: blaming the victim. A shameful display of revisionist history and a defense for an administration that uses the lowest form of dirty tricks to attack its opponents. That WaPo would join in on that type of smear is absolutely disgusting.