As Valerie Plame does the interview rounds – CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR – someone might miss the far-left, Bush-hating blog interviews. On Firedoglake, the most notable pro-Plame blog, Plame did a typewritten chat with her leftist admirers on Monday. She loved the leftist bloggers at FDL – even had them to her home for dinner -- and declared her interviews on CBS and NBC were fair. Her husband, Joe Wilson, popped in to suggest that two people convinced the Wilsons to fight the pernicious far right: Sidney Blumenthal – and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Watergate figure John Dean also popped in – to suggest Plame could be Hillary’s CIA Director.
Plame touted how she obsessively read the bloggers during the Libby trial, and "We hosted several FDLers including Jane and Christie and Marcy to our home for dinner during the trial and it was clear to me and Joe that they knew waaay more about the details of the case than we ever will. I am grateful to all of them for their passionate and dedicated efforts to get to the truth." Later, she compared them to "pamphleteers of the American Revolution."
Somehow, I suspect the FDLers of 1776 would have considered the American Revolution a "pre-emptive war" foisted on the people by the forces of wealth when the colonists were facing "no serious threat."
While some leftists in the chat room were furious at Katie Couric for not being soft enough on Plame, not showing enough outrage at the Bush team, Plame declared: "I absolutely think the 60 Minutes piece was fair… I thought they did a good job of explaining this sometimes complicated story… and speaking when I could not. Katie’s questions were good - she’s just doing her job."
On NBC, she added: "I thought that the question on the TODAY show about the capability of this administration to distor [sic] intelligence regarding Iran was a good one. As Yoggi [sic] Berra said, "it’s deja vu all over again." This time, however, I hope the American people are aware and ask questions and do not allow an inconsidered rush to war as with Iraq…"
Plame often sounded like Hillary: "For all that has happened to us personally, however, Joe and I never lose sight of the fact that everyday, American families get the worst possible news about their loved ones fighting in Iraq and their pain, that that of the country was caused by this admnistration’s [sic] arrogance and folly." She also complained that she deserved 24/7 security like the Attorney General and the CIA Director, and she didn’t get it out of political pique.
When her husband Joe Wilson popped in, he wrote this:
Two people in Washington helped us understand the broader implications of the fight we have found ourselves in: Sid Blumenthal, and Hillary Clinton. They had both been through the character assassination gauntlet, and were able to get us to see that the fight wasn’t personal, however painful it might be, but was all about how we conduct public debate and discourse in our democracy. I cannot tell you how many times they told us to pull up our socks and quit feeling sorry for ourselves because the future of the country is what really matters. I am eternally grateful to both for their wisdom and their profound understanding of the pernicious threat posed by the forces of the far right.
Here’s a few more notes underlining Plame’s loathing for administration officials:
-- The part in the book about wishing I could see Karl Rove at the Communion rail (we attended the same church in NW Washington) was what I HOPED could happen, but did not. I got the idea of FAIR GAME from his comment to Chris Matthews about me, and I thought it made an apt book title...
-- Let me take the easy part of your question, about Ari Fleisher [sic]. As I write in the book, if Ari had no idea it was a crime -or at a minimum a really bad idea - to give my name - knowing I worked at the CIA, to reporters, then he’s not smart enough to be working at the White House.
My only comment suitable for public consumption on Condi Rice is: have you heard Steve Earl’s [sic] song "Oh, Condi, Condi"? Joe has played it so much that our young song [sic] knows the words and catchy tune…
The lyrics from the leftist singer Steve Earle include, "Skank for me Condi show me what you got / They say you’re too uptight I say you’re not."
Isn't it a little odd for someone who wraps themselves in the flag to applaud a singer who tries sympathetically to get inside the mind of anti-American radical Islamists like Johnny Walker Lindh? Or says he's to the left of Mao?