Friday, May 05, 2006

ReGeling the Smear Machine

From Unclaimed Territory:

"Time to smear the latest Bush critic

Yesterday, Ray McGovern -- an American citizen with a 27-year career as a CIA analyst behind him -- stood up at a speech given by Donald Rumsfeld and aggressively questioned Rumsfeld on various statements Rumsfeld made regarding Iraq. McGovern specifically questioned Rumsfeld about this claim made in March, 2003: "We know where [the WMD] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." We all know what happens to people, including those with a long history of government service, who publicly embarrass the administration - it's time for a nice heap of character smear. . .
 
Neither Instapudnit, Gateway Pundit, nor Allah address the substantive point -- that Donald Rumsfeld told the country that he "knows" where WMDs are, and when confronted by McGovern with that false statement, denied that he made it. That fact is, of course, nowhere near as important as engaging in a vicious and frenzied character smear of yet another American who spent his entire career in service to his country and yet has his patriotism and mental health called into question by virtue of standing up to the administration. McGovern is in good company -- along with Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, Joe Wilson, Howard Dean, Al Gore, the war critic Generals, and all of the other corrupt, mentally ill and/or unpatriotic Americans whose motives and/or mental health have been similarly maligned after standing up to the administration.

That's the ugly modus operandi of so many Bush defenders. When an American stands up and aggressively criticizes the President and his policies, they immediately insist that there must be something severely wrong with their character or mental state. Ignoring the criticism itself, they try to maul the messenger. Ray McGovern should wear those smears, coming from these particular circles, as a badge of honor. . "