Posted 10:22 AM by Scoobie Davis

Plame-Gate: I Dare Call It Treason
After 9/11, I took the opinion (which I still hold), that if members of the Bush regime or the CIA were to use illegal tactics to extract information from captured members of al Qaeda, then so much the better; the security of the American people should trump other concerns. However, what happened with the Plame affair was much different: loyalty to the Bush regime trumped concerns about the safety and security of the American people. The Bush regime engaged in illegal tactics involving the CIA, but this involves weakening our security and making Americans more vulnerable to attacks from groups like al Qaeda. Mark Kleiman, who is following Plame-gate closely, doesn’t want to believe it, but it’s true (I don’t want to believe it either, but I know what the thugs occupying the White House are capable of doing such as daring Iraqis to attack our soldiers: ”Bring ‘em on”).

Here are just a few consequences of the Plame affair:
1) The weakening of our intelligence regarding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
2) Terrorist attacks are easier because Plame’s cover was blown.
3) Plame’s life is endangered—as well as the various contacts she has made throughout her career.
4) Plame’s career is destroyed. Her only sin was to be married to a man who told the truth (in the eyes of the Bush regime, this is disloyalty, a sin greater than any other—including treason).
5) The intimidation of whistleblowers who can provide information that can strengthen our defense against terrorists.
6) It is an assault against the rule of law. Where’s the outrage by those who cited the rule of law when the issue was the denial of a blowjob? (more on this later).

This stinks to high heaven. Let’s call the Bush regime’s actions what they are: treason. Ann Coulter is silent about the matter (apparently she is too busy red-baiting patriots like George C., Marshall whose hard work protected western Europe from communism). I knew the members of the Bush regime care only about themselves, but I didn’t think they would stoop this low—not because they aren’t thugs but because I thought they would forgo this kind of petty payback out of self-interest: the next terrorist attack could be against them.

Slowly but surely, Plame-gate is getting legs. This, of course, is no thanks to the same people who tried to promote non-scandals such as Whitewater and the White House Travel Office firings. One of the people who expressed outrage at various Clinton non-scandals was pompous blowhard William Bennett. Bennett is attempting to establish his reputation as a moral arbiter after the stunning expose that he was a problem gambler—most recently he has, at long last, come clean about the fact that he lost a shitload of money (nobody believed his bullshit story that he almost broke even).

If Bennett were sincere about doing the right thing, then first he could start by denouncing this outrage against the American people by the Bush regime. If the guy could get worked up enough to write a book encouraging the American people to get outraged over a president who got blown and didn’t want to talk about it, then he should have no problem with call for outrage against a regime that is putting the American people in danger. I’m waiting.