Documenting Duplicity: Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame

Fausta, in her blog today, links to a post by Steve Gilbert entitled When and Why Joseph C Wilson Outed Valerie Plame. It is by far the best and most thorough compilation of facts surrounding the Wilson and Plame myths that I have seen. It is a point by point merciless attack upon the foundations of the Wilson Plame myths and truly is a must read.

The myths I am referring to are the that Joe Wilson proved that Bush was lying about Iraqi intentions to purchase uranium in Africa and the myth that there was a conspiracy at the highest levels of government to "out" Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, to punish Wilson. Those myths are alive and well today. The Democratic party made a conscious decision years ago to embrace, protect and publicize the Wilson and Plame myths.

The 9-11 Commission was notable for fact checking Wilson's claims, finding them to be dishonest based upon undisputed facts in the record, but being unable to publish the Wilson related findings in the portion of the report upon which there was bipartisan agreement. Why? - Well, because the partisan Democrats brazenly refused to acknowledge the facts. The Democrats on the panel did not challenge any of the facts - they simply refused to agree to them.

It turns out, if you value partisan polemics above truth, then the Democrats certainly made the right decision. The myths relating to Wilson and Plame have been repeated ad infinitum since the 9-11 report, all to the benefit of the partisan Democrats. Never in any MSM piece on Joe Wilson does anyone raise the issue that Wilson was lying to the American public in his now infamous op-ed and in all his talks on the topic before and since. Rarely in any of the MSM pieces on Joe Wilson does anyone note that he worked for the Kerry and Gore presidential campaigns. He is invariably portrayed as honest in his criticisms and impartial in his approach. And his wife, Valerie Plame, is portrayed as the victim of Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney.

The effort to butress these myths is being played out in the halls of congress even today, as Henry Waxman is holding hearings to "get to the bottom" of who is responsible for outing Valerie Plame. Waxman himself has proclaimed Wilson's honesty, and Valerie Plame has proclaimed her outing in Novack's column to have been the result of a Rovian conspiracy. Despite the facts, the myth is not only alive and well, it is gaining in strength and not being effectively challenged. At least not by the MSM or republican elected officials. The same cannot be said of Steve Gilbert, in his post linked in the first paragraph above.