Karl and Scooter’s Excellent Adventure

Props to Nevada Thunder for posting the full text of today’s Frank Rich Op-Ed column, “Karl and Scooter’s Excellent Adventure.” Right from paragraph one, Rich focuses on the question which should be on everyone’s mind: given the lack of WMDs and no provable tie between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, why did we go to war in Iraq?

Rich finds somewhat different motivations among the major players. On the one hand, the Rove-Bush camp wanted to secure Republican victories in the November ’02 midterm elections. Bush’s post-9/11 political capital had hit the skids, thanks to the bungled effort to capture Bin Laden “dead or alive” and waning American interest in an extended Middle East war. Hence the impetus towards something dramatic:

Mr. Rove could see that an untelevised and largely underground war against terrorists might not nail election victories without a jolt of shock and awe. It was a propitious moment to wag the dog.

On the other hand, we have the Cheney-Scooter Libby-Wolfowitz camp:

Mr. Libby had been joined at the hip with Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz since their service in the Defense Department of the Bush 41 administration, where they conceived the neoconservative manifesto for the buildup and exercise of unilateral American military power after the cold war. Well before Bush 43 took office, they had become fixated on Iraq, though for reasons having much to do with their ideas about realigning the states in the Middle East and little or nothing to do with the stateless terrorism of Al Qaeda.

The desires of these two groups converged with the plan for a war in Iraq. Rich: “the path was clear for a war in Iraq to serve as the political Viagra Mr. Rove needed for the election year.”

The answer to Why? Republican hunger for unmatched political control of the United States government, and neocon wet dreams of a world-dominating American military juggernaut.

Why? Because they wanted to rule our country with an iron fist. Because they had that same glorious vision for the rest of the world.

And we all know what absolute power does, don’t we?

D.

Maureen Dowd fixes a Judy Miller kebab

Peking Duck has reprinted Maureen Dowd‘s Op-Ed piece in full*. In “Woman of Mass Destruction,” Ms. Dowd begins by examining what she likes (liked?) about Judith Miller. I get the sense it’s a case of one strong woman admiring another. Then Ms. Dowd reminisces about Miller’s bitch mode:

Once when I was covering the first Bush White House, I was in The Times’s seat in the crowded White House press room, listening to an administration official’s background briefing. Judy had moved on from her tempestuous tenure as a Washington editor to be a reporter based in New York, but she showed up at this national security affairs briefing.

At first she leaned against the wall near where I was sitting, but I noticed that she seemed agitated about something. Midway through the briefing, she came over and whispered to me, “I think I should be sitting in the Times seat.”

It was such an outrageous move, I could only laugh. I got up and stood in the back of the room, while Judy claimed what she felt was her rightful power perch.

She never knew when to quit. That was her talent and her flaw.

Ms. Dowd succinctly covers the flaming arc of Miller’s career, and closes with what we’ve all been thinking:

I admire Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Bill Keller for aggressively backing reporters in the cross hairs of a prosecutor. But before turning Judy’s case into a First Amendment battle, they should have nailed her to a chair and extracted the entire story of her escapade.

Judy told The Times that she plans to write a book and intends to return to the newsroom, hoping to cover “the same thing I’ve always covered – threats to our country.” If that were to happen, the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands.

Hmm. That assumes The Times would have her back; yet it’s looking more and more likely that she’ll soon be out on her butt. That’s okay. With her unique brand of inflammatory fiction, I’m sure the Weekly World News would have her. Let her cover the Bat Boy Beat.

At the moment, the liveliest discussion on this Op-Ed can be found at Huffington Post.

D.

*Such tactics are necessary because the NY Times now buries its most popular Op-Ed items (Dowd, Rich, etc.) in the Times Select Black Hole. Screw them. Their paper is in a state of crisis thanks to Miller, and what do they do? Alienate people by trying to score a buck.