Wilson: Val and I Threatened, And Not Just by Rush and Sean Fans!

Joe Wilson wants the world to know that in the wake of the disclosure of his wife's identity, he and Valerie have been threatened, and not just by "Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity listeners."

But as documented by MRC, after the Oklahoma City bombing liberals like Bryant Gumbel pointed the finger at conservative talk radio: "Right-wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh . . . and others take to the air . . . the extent to which their attitudes may embolden and encourage some extremists has clearly become an issue."

Will the left wing please make up its mind? Which is it? Are conservative talk-show fans harmless fuzzballs, or potentially dangerous mind-numbed robots?

Wilson's claim was perhaps the most amusing line in an otherwise surprisingly staid interview conducted by Keith Olbermann on this evening's Countdown. The normally outrageous Olbermann was on his better behavior, soberly posing his questions, neither feeding softballs nor cheerleading for Wilson's conspiracy theory that Cheney, Rove et. al intentionally outed Valerie Plame in retribution for Wilson's criticism of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

Excerpts:

Wilson claimed he didn't watch Novak's Meet the Press appearance. He sniffed: "I didn't watch it yesterday. I just saw your set-up piece piece. Novak is telling another story to another interviewer."

Olbermann even laid a bit of a trap for Wilson: "If you got the truth on the record under oath of what happened, a timeline of some sort, a clear picture but there were no damages and maybe not even a verdict in your favor, would that be enough from your perspective?"

Wilson wouldn't take the high road: "That's a hypothetical. I'm going to leave all that to play out as it may play out."

Olbermann even threw the Wilsons' ensuing fame back in Joe's face: "One critical aspect of the suit would seem to be the sense that physical danger to you and your wife and your family resulted from the revealing of her work with the CIA. Your critics on the other hand have stressed that the danger could not have been that great if she was photographed for Vanity Fair or you were both seen at the Washington Correspondents Dinner. How would you rectify the idea of the threat with those public appearances?"

That's when Wilson dissed talk-radio nation: "Mr. Novak's wife is no danger whatsoever until such time as someone compromises her identity as a CIA operative if that's what somebody decides they will do. If in fact that is what she is. [Huh?] It is the fact that Valerie worked in a very sensitive position in the intelligence services that obviously brings about a certain level of security threat to us, which level we've been exposed to. There have been threats made to us that have come to our attention through the intelligence community. So these are not just your right-wing Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity listeners."

Olbermann probed: "Can you go into any detail about that or is that something that will come out in the course of the lawsuit?"

Wilson: "I don't know if it'll come out in the course of the lawsuit, I'm not going to go into detail other than to say that it is happening and we have been informed about it. The law enforcement authorities have taken appropriate measures as they saw fit."

Later, Olbermann questioned the fundamental theory of Wilson's case, that the disclosure of Plame's employment was intentional payback aimed at Wilson: "It has been widely reported that [Novak's] source was the former Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage. I read an article this afternoon from Christopher Hitchens, Hitchens said . . . because Armitage had a visceral hatred of the neo-conservatives, Armitage as Novak's source annihilates the idea that there was any Bush administration vendetta against you. Would it do so?"

Wilson: "I don't think so because I think it's now very clear that there was a vendetta. The vendetta was run out of the vice president's office. It was Scooter Libby and it was Karl Rove. We know that. We know that they were leaking Valerie's identity to the press. So whether or not Novak was part of that other plot or whether or not Novak was just a sideline in all of this, I have no idea. Hopefully when we go through discovery we will learn some of this."

Even the screen graphic was neutral: 'Making His Case', not, oh, the 'Martyrdom of the Saints' that one might have anticipated.

A surprisingly reserved performance by Olbermann. Reading between the lines, could Keith have seen the seemingly credible Novak interviews on Fox News and Meet the Press, reviewed the skimpy Wilson complaint, read the Hitchens column, and concluded that discretion was the better part of valor when it came to hitching his star to a bogus publicity stunt destined for the dustbin of litigation lore?

Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY, where he hosts the award-winning public-access TV show 'Right Angle.' Contact him at mark@gunhill.net