The New York Times resurrects the Valerie Plame story today, and once again lefty bloggers smell blood. Unfortunately for them, says Josh Marshall, the Times piece “implies a lot but says frustratingly little” about the inquiry. Investigators are considering going Martha on White House officials, charging them not with the crime but with lying about it in the aftermath. But it’s unclear, Marshall says, “whether these might be indictments in addition to ones tied to the underlying crime or whether the prosecutors are going for this because they can’t make a case on that underlying bad act.”
Liberal radio network Air America has made it to day three, and while everybody is commenting that Al Franken sounds more like Bob Edwards than Rush Limbaugh, his colleague Randi Rhodes is playing the role of a vitriolic liberal Limbaugh to a tee. Here’s a snippet of her indignant interview with Ralph Nader, kindly typed up by ckerr over at Daily Kos, which ended with Nader hanging up:
Nader: Are you a show host? Are you interviewing? Or are you filibustering? Do you want to give me a chance to —
Randi: — no, I’m angry at you! —
Nader: — wait wait! Is this the way —
Randi: — I’m angry at you! I’m a genuine person who’s really mad at your candidacy!
Nader: Well, why are you denying millions of people the opportunity to vote for my candidacy —
Randi: Because. We. Can’t. Afford. It.
Nader: — how arrogant, how arrogant can you be? —
Randi: I’m not arrogant, I’m a patriot! I — we can’t afford you, and real patriots have to stand up and question your candidacy!
A blog called The Spoons Experience condemns Kos for his take on the brutal murder of four American private security company employees in Fallujah. “I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries,” wrote Kos. “They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.”
And, finally, Tim Cavanaugh at Reason’s “Hit and Run,” referencing a piece by colleague Jesse Walker, says political doomsdayers don’t know how good they have it. After all, we could all be hapless citizens in a bad movie. “If you think this is a uniquely bad time for Washington politics, you have no historical memory. Don’t you remember when the president was forced to kneel before General Zod? Remember when the president had to nuke New York while his wife was there? When Serbs or something took over the president’s plane, and he had to whup some ass? When the president was kidnapped, and Captain Kirk (a Canadian, for Christ’s sake!) had to rescue him?”
Frankly, we hadn’t thought of it that way — and plan to avoid doing so every chance we get.
–Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.