Comments on: Parting Is So Little Sorrow

By: mtl

mtl — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:31:37 +0000

Glad the bitch is gone.

The left, for all there complaints fearing the CIA working inside the US, seems to fail to recognize that it has become a political group. That is not the job of the CIA.

You want to defend her?

What happens if the changes in the CIA are replacing the liberals, with conservative leaning operatives?

Would you like to see them leaking info about the Democrats to influence public policy inside this country? It just happened to the Republicans…and not a word from the democrats.

Millions of facts go into conclusions, some are dispositive-is it fair to present the specific dispositive information, while the consensus is far different?

She should have resigned as soon as her husband started using work from the CIA to make political gains-he never had access to all the facts, but tried to make it appear so.

The republicans didn’t make her lose her job…her husband did.

No apologies for watching her career destroyed-it is her own damn fault.

By: RichardR

RichardR — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 16:30:32 +0000

Fair enough. Thanks for the candor.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 04:33:27 +0000

Well, as I said, my snarkiness was a bit misplaced…my only further point is that it is not glee with me, but disgust at how much oxygen is getting sucked out of the room by these celebrity dissenters (again, with the acknowledgement that it’s more her husband than her)…

I’ve got no brief against Plame herself, I suppose – I think she could have probably kept this thing from reaching the gigantic proportions it has assumed, but that’s neither here nor there…

However, it’s bad form to celebrate another’s misfortune, and I’ll freely admit that my original post was probably a bit harsher in its implications than Plame deserves…fair enough?

By: RichardR

RichardR — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 03:57:53 +0000

I kind-of understand your point one. It’s reasonable to assume Plame’s views are similar to her husband’s. Even so, is that evidence she wasn’t doing a good job? That her expertise wasn’t useful? Presumably the CIA has both Democrat and Republican supporters as agents. You’re not going to agree with the political views of all of them – surely the issue is how good they are at their jobs? As I said, I assume she was competent or they wouldn’t have kept her all those years.

I don’t get your point two at all. Plame isn’t responsible for the way the investigation went – blame the Special Prosecutor. And if the CIA routinely leaks information, why be happy that Plame is going? By that logic they should all go. Unless she any worse than the others with respect to leaking, and I hadn’t heard that.

Don’t you think it a little sad that we have one less weapons proliferation expert working for the CIA? I guess I just don’t get the apparent glee her resignation has sparked.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 01:09:23 +0000

Okay, fair enough – I’m tarring her with two brushes that perhaps she doesn’t deserve – one is guilt by association with her husband, and the second is the hypocrisy of CIA leaks.

One, her husband: indisputably, Joe Wilson is a publicity hound (Vanity Fair, anyone?), a partisan hack (he’s currently making quite a killing doing fundraisers for the Democrats), and a proven liar on the subject of Niger (witness his use of the document forgeries as a reason for his skepticism on uranium sales when the documents involved came to light months after his report).

Now, it’s doubtful that Valerie would have recommended such a man for the Niger trip if she didn’t share his views – but do I know that conclusively? No, I do not…guilty as charged.

Two, the CIA: the PlameGate investigation has turned into a perjury investigation about conversations between reporters and sources in the government – there is no national security component at all. Does that mean Libby or Rove should out CIA agents for partisan reasons? No – nor are they accused of such (quite the opposite) by the Special Prosecutor.

Yet CIA employees routinely leak highly classified information THEMSELVES that indisputably affect national security. How else did the Washington Post get its scoop on ‘black’ prisons in Eastern Europe?

So, perhaps my lack of sorrow over Plame’s retirement is cynically motivated – but it’s not baseless…

By: RichardR

RichardR — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:50:17 +0000

OK, here’s how I see it. Plame was a weapons proliferation expert working for the security of the US. She was with the CIA for 20 some years so I assume she was at least competent. It’s reasonable to think she was, in some way, helping to make us safer. Maybe in a small way – she was a small cog – but nonetheless on our side. One of the good guys. So why the joy that she effectively had to quit?

I can understand you not liking her husband. But why so happy Plame is not working for our security at the CIA anymore?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:40:48 +0000

Listen, Richard, I make it a policy not to get into discussions or arguments with people who come here and right away insult me, and that’s just what you did when you questioned my patriotism. If you want to make reasoned arguments, you’ll get a reasoned reply…if you want to just come in to my little community and hurl epithets my way, I’ve got better things to do…

By: RichardR

RichardR — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 21:12:47 +0000

“I know, I know, dry your tears, people, get a hold of yourselves!”

Give me a break, Mark, and get a life…

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 18:42:00 +0000

Hounded out of her job? Give me a break, Richard, and get a life…

By: RichardR

RichardR — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 18:37:32 +0000

A weapons proliferation expert working for the security of the US has been hounded out of her job and you think this is a good thing. What a patriot you are.