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Corn wears an air of authority while he distorts the facts to demonize
conservatives. Some cases in point:
- www.thenation.com 7/16/03: The current Bush administration has
not been so appreciative of [Ambassador Joseph] Wilson's more recent efforts
[in U.S. diplomacy and espionage]. In Niger, he met with past and present
government officials and persons involved in the uranium business and
concluded that it was "highly doubtful" that Hussein had been able to
purchase uranium from that nation. On June 12, The Washington Post revealed
that an unnamed ambassador had traveled to Niger and had reported back that
the Niger caper probably never happened. This article revved up the
controversy over Bush's claim--which he made in the state of the union
speech--that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium in Africa for a nuclear
weapons program (emphasis added). Corn is careless to suggest that
Wilson's finding indicates that Bush and British intelligence were wrong to
conclude that Hussein had attempted to purchase uranium in Africa.
If his paraphrase is accurate, and Wilson indicated it was unlikely Hussein
succeeded, then there is no evidence to suggest that Hussein did not try.
In fact, in order for the question of success or failure even to be raised,
the attempt must be assumed. The fact that Corn is unconscious of the
difference points either to a jaundiced eye or simple intellectual laziness.
- www.thenation.com 7/16/03: So [Joseph Wilson] will neither
confirm nor deny that his wife--who is the mother of three-year-old
twins--works for the CIA. But let's assume she does. That would seem to
mean that the Bush administration has screwed one of its own top-secret
operatives in order to punish Wilson or to send a message to others who might
challenge it.... In this instance, it appears possible--perhaps
likely--that Bush administration officials gathered material on Wilson and
his family and then revealed classified information to lash out at him, and in
doing so compromised national security.... The Wilson smear was a thuggish
act. Bush and his crew abused and misused intelligence to make their case
for war. Now there is evidence Bushies used classified information and put the
nation's counter-proliferation efforts at risk merely to settle a score. It is
a sign that with this gang politics trumps national security. Again,
the conclusion is not justified by the very evidence he adduces. He says
it seems to mean this, and that appears possible, and then
concludes that all the appearances and possibilities add up to a cold hard
fact. As a matter of fact, they don't. What they add up to is the
wishful speculation of a knee-jerk liberal who can't envision a leader with
real integrity (he would prefer a womanizing sexual-harasser with a penchant
for lying at the drop of a hat, and smearing anyone who ever looked at him
funny). The Wilson smear never happened, as Robert Novak
has since revealed. And an act that did not occur cannot be thuggish.
Like so many empty charges leveled by liberals against conservatives, it
disappears when you examine it closely. All that's left is the bitter
desperation of a movement that is in its death throes because it has been
buttressed for so long (since the departure from the political scene of
somewhat more ethical liberals like Truman and John F. Kennedy) by a tapestry
of lies and distortions.
Modified: 11/10/2003
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Jonathan Alter
David Corn
Walter Cronkite
Maureen Dowd
Al Franken
Ellen Goodman
Molly Ivins
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Ed Quillen
Anna Quindlen
Welfare Follies
Chris Matthews
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