by Roland X, 10-15-03

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Okay, it's bad enough that members of the Bush administration blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Wilson (nee Plame). Now that the story has blown up in their faces, however, why isn't the government protecting her?

The former diplomat whose wife's identity as a CIA officer was disclosed by the Bush administration said yesterday that the leak has put her life in danger and that the government is not protecting her.

... Wilson protested that "nobody has offered security from the government, although my wife is a longstanding US government employee."

The U.S. government had not offered any security measures, said Wilson, adding that a leading former CIA official had said his wife "was probably the single highest target of any possible terrorist organization or hostile intelligence service that might want to do damage."

1) Any potential suppression of dissent or intimidation of whistle-blowers that withholding protection for Mrs. Wilson can provide is minimal at most. On the other hand, increasing the outrage of the administration's critics is entirely likely.

2) If Mrs. Wilson is attacked, or worse, actually killed, it will be a public relations disaster for the Bush administration.

This situation neatly sums up the nature of the Bush presidency. All opposition, foreign or domestic, is to be crushed by any means necessary. Ideology is the driving factor in all such decisions, regardless of any potential benefit or harm to the administration—or America.

The Plame scandal is one of the greatest threats this administration has faced to date. The first rule of spin, as with medicine, is "first, do no harm." And yet, Valerie Wilson does not have any official protection. There are only two logical reasons for this: one, Rove still hopes to use this situation to discourage others from speaking out, and two, providing protection means admitting that she is both important enough and sufficiently threatened to warrant said protection.

Either rationale falls flat in the face of simple expediency. Any perceived benefits of leaving Mrs. Wilson exposed could not possibly outweigh the benefits of going through the motions—or the dangers of leaving her at risk. It is not only morally repugnant to endanger Mrs. Wilson (as well as her husband and children), it is simply foolish.

This attitude, of course, is standard operating procedure in the Bush administration. "Slime and defend" is the actual term used by a Republican aide to describe the White House's strategy for spinning this scandal away. No attack is too reprehensible and no spin is too outrageous in its efforts to silence criticism. No matter that Ambassador Wilson is a genuine hero of Gulf War I, putting his life on the line to protect hundreds of people and earning high praise from no less a figure than George H.W. Bush himself. No matter that Valerie Wilson was a valuable asset in the supposedly all-important war on terror, working to prevent the proliferation of "weapons of mass destruction." If they represent a threat to Dubya's poll numbers, they must be discredited.

At the same time, the stalling tactics, the cover-up, and (inexplicably) the willingness to leave Mrs. Wilson "out in the cold" are the actions of people who have learned precisely nothing from previous scandals. True, there are other, more glaring examples. Perhaps the most obvious is that White House spokesman Scott McClellan has made some appallingly ambiguous semi-denials regarding Messrs. Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, and Elliott Abrams, in the spin equivalent of "damning with faint praise." However, it seems that the lack of concern for Valerie Wilson's safety puts a particularly fine point on their sheer folly. Should any harm come to her, a woman who "was probably the single highest target" of hostile forces in that area, the resulting firestorm will make the current scandal look like a candle flame by comparison. Democrats will (rightly) howl for Bush's head on a plate (or at least Rove's), more Republicans will abandon the administration, many others will distance themselves, and Bush's last year in office will be a nightmare of constant defense and retreat. It is very difficult to slime dead heroes.

None of this matters to the Rove Regime, of course. With some reason, they seem to fear the idea of losing any control over American discourse. Whether the subject is the overall strategy of fighting a global conflict or the matter of protecting a CIA operative that they themselves endangered, the White House accepts no suggestions of fallibility. Bush's defenders can call this a tempest in a teapot all they like, but the reason the Plame scandal "has legs" is because it is really a microcosm of the administration as a whole, and Americans are finally beginning to realize that.

Ultimately, the administration's refusal to protect Valerie Wilson throws the entire debacle into sharp relief. It is the grand equation of the current administration distilled to its bare essentials: corruption plus incompetence equals Dubya.

(/) Roland X

http://rolandx.blogspot.com