Dishonorable Creep [Updated]
[Posted by reader_iam]
Updated 9/9, at bottom.
Armitage finally gets around to admitting he was the Plame leak source for both Novak and Woodward.
Well, who gives a rat's ass how YOU feel, cowboy? Your "feelings" don't buy back a single minute of the distraction which this investigation has perpetrated upon this country during a period of time when there have been a helluva lot more important things going on. And they don't pay a single dime of the legal bills that so many people have amassed during the course of this waste-of-time-and-taxpayer-dollars probe.
Of course, Armitage himself never had to hire a lawyer--he didn't feel he needed one. Well, of course not--he had Patrick Fitzgerald, another stand-up, upfront guy, on his side. What more could he possibly need?
As for this crap:
And THIS crap:
Come the hell off it. Ya think President Bush really wanted all sorts of people in his administration--and not just Rove, Cheney and Libby, folks--to take all sorts of crap, live under a shadow, and develop close personal relationships with lawyers they never should have been forced to hire in the first place?
And an "inadvertent mistake"? AN inadvertent mistake? Armitage spoke NOT just to Bob Novak, but Bob Woodward, too--and even earlier. See, this is the problem with gossips. Not only do they have gleefully loose lips, but they almost never, ever take responsibility for the damage they cause. And they almost always, always assume an aggrieved, irritated air as they self-righteously whine, later, at being caught out.
I would be laughing out loud at the "I deserved whatever was coming" part if it weren't so appallingly narcissistic and tone deaf. Armitage got NOTHING of what was coming to him. Who the hell does he think he's kidding? He didn't twist under a shadow; he didn't incur legal bills; he didn't spend time in jail in connection with the investigation, as Judith Miller--who never even wrote a story outing Plame, something people persistently want to forget--did. Shit, he's not even getting sued by Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson! (Speaking of which, maybe some of those people who got sucked up needlessly in all of this should consider taking like action--against Armitage. Hint. Hint.)
You're a jerk, Richard Armitage, plain and simple. And you and your fellow stand-up buds--yeah, I'm referring to YOU, Colin Powell, and YOU, Patrick Fitzgerald--can do the "Wha----? Who, me? I was just doing what I was told to do/just doing my job" two-step all you want, but your petticoats are showing. We're on to you.
Sptooey.
Just one more thing (update): Don't give me that "Fitzgerald told me not to tell anyone" b.s. You didn't seem have a problemgossiping aboutleaking the classified status of a CIA agent to the press. Funny how you developed scruples only when it came to your role in the whole thing.
[Note: Yeah, I'm still too busy to be blogging. But THIS rant I needed to get out of my system. Now I'll move on.]
Update 9/9: Yeah, I know this thread is dead. But I still want to add another two things, and they're not worth a new post--at least not one that I have time to do right now.
He didn't twist under a shadow; he didn't incur legal bills; he didn't spend time in jail in connection with the investigation, as Judith Miller--who never even wrote a story outing Plame, something people persistently want to forget--did.
And he wasn't "outed" as the source, either. In fact, he was protected from exposure, from the very beginning or from very early on (depending on the case), by powerful, influential and respected people (thus my mention of two others in this post). They let us--we the people, en masse--down: Whether or not that was the intention, that's what they did. That's what happened. It's contributed to where were are, on multiple levels.
Finally, in case an implied point of mine was too, well, implied, as opposed to being clear:
I think a lot--if not most--of this has to do with a phrase with which we're all familiar:
Paybacks are a bitch.
Doesn't make it any less dishonorable, though, given that the cost was born far more widely than by just the people against whom a grudge could be understood. The fact that this issue, this utterly predictable effect, either wasn't weighed (recognized?) or was disregarded makes the the behavior more, rather than less, egregious.
2nd update, 9/9 All of which activity and behavior and motive, blended with other activity and behavior and motive, blurs the distinction between the "Forces of Right" and the "Forces of Wrong," which is how we keep wanting to set up not just this, but basically everything.
But life simply doesn't work that way. It doesn't. It doesn't matter from which side or agenda that POV is presented. It doesn't matter whether we're talking life writ large or small. It doesn't matter if we're talking in political terms, or partisan ones. (And not even in daily life, for the vast majority of people, not really.)
Wishin' ain't gettin'.
Flat out: Life just doesn't work that way.
Updated 9/9, at bottom.
Armitage finally gets around to admitting he was the Plame leak source for both Novak and Woodward.
“It was a terrible error on my part,” Mr. Armitage said in an interview. He added, “ There wasn’t a day when I didn’t feel like I had let down the President, the Secretary of State, my colleagues, my family and the Wilsons. I value my ability to keep state secrets. This was bad and I really felt badly about this.”
Well, who gives a rat's ass how YOU feel, cowboy? Your "feelings" don't buy back a single minute of the distraction which this investigation has perpetrated upon this country during a period of time when there have been a helluva lot more important things going on. And they don't pay a single dime of the legal bills that so many people have amassed during the course of this waste-of-time-and-taxpayer-dollars probe.
Of course, Armitage himself never had to hire a lawyer--he didn't feel he needed one. Well, of course not--he had Patrick Fitzgerald, another stand-up, upfront guy, on his side. What more could he possibly need?
As for this crap:
Expressing irritation over assertions in some newspaper editorials and on some Internet blogs that, by his silence, he had been disloyal to the Bush administration, Mr. Armitage said that he had followed Mr. Bush’s repeated instruction to administration officials to cooperate with the Fitzgerald inquiry.
“I felt like I was doing exactly what he wanted,” he said.
And THIS crap:
“I had made an inadvertent mistake, but a mistake in any event. I deserved whatever was coming to me... .
Come the hell off it. Ya think President Bush really wanted all sorts of people in his administration--and not just Rove, Cheney and Libby, folks--to take all sorts of crap, live under a shadow, and develop close personal relationships with lawyers they never should have been forced to hire in the first place?
And an "inadvertent mistake"? AN inadvertent mistake? Armitage spoke NOT just to Bob Novak, but Bob Woodward, too--and even earlier. See, this is the problem with gossips. Not only do they have gleefully loose lips, but they almost never, ever take responsibility for the damage they cause. And they almost always, always assume an aggrieved, irritated air as they self-righteously whine, later, at being caught out.
I would be laughing out loud at the "I deserved whatever was coming" part if it weren't so appallingly narcissistic and tone deaf. Armitage got NOTHING of what was coming to him. Who the hell does he think he's kidding? He didn't twist under a shadow; he didn't incur legal bills; he didn't spend time in jail in connection with the investigation, as Judith Miller--who never even wrote a story outing Plame, something people persistently want to forget--did. Shit, he's not even getting sued by Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson! (Speaking of which, maybe some of those people who got sucked up needlessly in all of this should consider taking like action--against Armitage. Hint. Hint.)
You're a jerk, Richard Armitage, plain and simple. And you and your fellow stand-up buds--yeah, I'm referring to YOU, Colin Powell, and YOU, Patrick Fitzgerald--can do the "Wha----? Who, me? I was just doing what I was told to do/just doing my job" two-step all you want, but your petticoats are showing. We're on to you.
Sptooey.
Just one more thing (update): Don't give me that "Fitzgerald told me not to tell anyone" b.s. You didn't seem have a problem
[Note: Yeah, I'm still too busy to be blogging. But THIS rant I needed to get out of my system. Now I'll move on.]
Update 9/9: Yeah, I know this thread is dead. But I still want to add another two things, and they're not worth a new post--at least not one that I have time to do right now.
He didn't twist under a shadow; he didn't incur legal bills; he didn't spend time in jail in connection with the investigation, as Judith Miller--who never even wrote a story outing Plame, something people persistently want to forget--did.
And he wasn't "outed" as the source, either. In fact, he was protected from exposure, from the very beginning or from very early on (depending on the case), by powerful, influential and respected people (thus my mention of two others in this post). They let us--we the people, en masse--down: Whether or not that was the intention, that's what they did. That's what happened. It's contributed to where were are, on multiple levels.
Finally, in case an implied point of mine was too, well, implied, as opposed to being clear:
I think a lot--if not most--of this has to do with a phrase with which we're all familiar:
Paybacks are a bitch.
Doesn't make it any less dishonorable, though, given that the cost was born far more widely than by just the people against whom a grudge could be understood. The fact that this issue, this utterly predictable effect, either wasn't weighed (recognized?) or was disregarded makes the the behavior more, rather than less, egregious.
2nd update, 9/9 All of which activity and behavior and motive, blended with other activity and behavior and motive, blurs the distinction between the "Forces of Right" and the "Forces of Wrong," which is how we keep wanting to set up not just this, but basically everything.
But life simply doesn't work that way. It doesn't. It doesn't matter from which side or agenda that POV is presented. It doesn't matter whether we're talking life writ large or small. It doesn't matter if we're talking in political terms, or partisan ones. (And not even in daily life, for the vast majority of people, not really.)
Wishin' ain't gettin'.
Flat out: Life just doesn't work that way.
