You Can't Get There From Here
Interesting post over at AngryBear about how the right is reacting to the latest Rove-is-a-criminal-or-at-least-a-liar disclosures.
In particular:
I don't care whether Joe Wilson did post a bio on the web with the name "Valerie Plame" as his wife's; anyone halfway competent could find out his wife's maiden name through a public records search.
No, the key piece of information is not that "Joe Wilson's wife's maiden name is Valerie Plame". It's that "Valerie Plame is the name used by Joe Wilson's wife in her capacity as a covert CIA agent."
It may be that Plame was careless in using her maiden name as her covert moniker (though maybe not -- I don't know specifically what she was doing at the Agency, or what she needed to do to avoid having her cover blown -- other than stay off the WH-Novak enemies list, anyway -- and I'd bet the same is true of your friendly neighborhood rightwing mudthrower).
Ask yourself this: if public knowledge of the name "Valerie Plame" obviated criminal culpability, would the CIA have even bothered to refer the case to DOJ? Hardly.
In particular:
John Podhoretz is writing over at NRO’s The Corner:Now, rightwing apologists for Rove have made a practice of obscuring the real issues in this whole affair from the start. And this is no exception.
Two years ago Joseph C. Wilson IV had a bio available online in which he mentioned his wife Valerie Plame's name. The bio has vanished. If anyone perchance saved it or a screenshot of it and can e-mail it to me, I'd be grateful. (PS: It's now 4:15 pm EDT. If you don't do it by 4:30, don't bother.)
Followed by:
Thanks, everybody, for the multiple copies of his bio. Check out the NYPost tomorrow for my use of it...
I don't care whether Joe Wilson did post a bio on the web with the name "Valerie Plame" as his wife's; anyone halfway competent could find out his wife's maiden name through a public records search.
No, the key piece of information is not that "Joe Wilson's wife's maiden name is Valerie Plame". It's that "Valerie Plame is the name used by Joe Wilson's wife in her capacity as a covert CIA agent."
It may be that Plame was careless in using her maiden name as her covert moniker (though maybe not -- I don't know specifically what she was doing at the Agency, or what she needed to do to avoid having her cover blown -- other than stay off the WH-Novak enemies list, anyway -- and I'd bet the same is true of your friendly neighborhood rightwing mudthrower).
Ask yourself this: if public knowledge of the name "Valerie Plame" obviated criminal culpability, would the CIA have even bothered to refer the case to DOJ? Hardly.
posted by Jonah B. Gelbach at 5:26 PM
3 Comments:
It would be illogical for him not to mention his wife. As you know in our area, it is very common for wives to reatain and use their last names for professional purposes (mine does). You're also right on the records search. She was doing something in the "knowledge industry" around town and that was enough of a cover. I'm sure that there are people all over town who are hopping mad that this ever happened. Let's wait for the estimated number of compromised agents from this Rove/Bush leak. That will show the impact. The WH spin machine is a one trick pony, which is no longer enough. They can stick their heads between their legs and kiss their asses good-bye.
Novak's followup article from October 1, 2003 mentions that "Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's 'Who's Who in America' entry." So yes, it's apparently not hard at all to track down.
Aside from the blinding stupidity it would take to not understand the distinction between revealing that Wilson had a wife and revealing that she was a covert CIA agent, it stretches the bounds of credulity to think Fitzgerald would have spent two years investigating something if it weren't, in fact, a crime.
As they like to say about the terrorists, it's a sign of their desperation.
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