People see what they want to see, I guess. Which is why the “Crooks and Liars” folks feels like the video below (downloaded from their site) represents some sort of victory for them. In it, Victoria Toensing – the lawyer who drafted the 1982 law that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used to investigate pretty much everybody but the guy that everyone knows “leaked” Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA agent – testifies before Rep. Harry Waxman’s House Oversight Committee that, well: Plame wasn’t covert for the purposes of the statute.
Which, from Waxman’s perspective, isn’t, you know: The right answer. “Shut up,” he repeatedly explains, as Toensing bravely attempts to finish the odd sentence.
WAXMAN: I am stunned, Ms. Toensing, that you would come here with absolute conclusions that she was not a covert agent; the White House did not leak it; no one seemed to know in advance that she was a CIA agent. Do you know those facts for your own firsthand knowledge?
TOENSING: Well, lets just take those one by one. As I said, I was there. I was the chief drafter for chairman
Ouch. Good thing Waxman doesn’t read your blog, ’cause that would leave a mark.
This is the kind of partisan nitpicking that makes normal people’s eyes glaze over. The average person may be forgiven if they don’t follow the volatility of either Waxman’s or Toensing’s line of reasoning. As Lincoln said, “One must, both may, be wrong”. If Waxman is just being a bully and Toensing is just playing CYA until she can come up with a more obscure answer to a murky loaded question, they both cancel each other out.
We don’t even extract a price from our sworn enemies for using deception, maskirovka and dull complacency against us to lower our guard to the next attack. Instead in our vanity we hand it to them daily on a silver platter.
The only people I feel sympathy for are the unknown security personnel guarding the chamber who had to listen to this tap dance. And as their eyes ceaselessly moved, watching people, exits, windows, and packages, wondered to themselves: “How in he$$ am I going to protect these fools?”
I watched the whole exchange between Waxman and Toensing in real time…and I had nothing but admiration for Ms. Toensing. She stood her ground quite well, and one got the feeling she wanted oh-so-desperately to kick Waxman’s a$$. Him and that clue-free black congresswoman from California who kept cutting Toensing off with “I’m reclaiming my time…”
My, what a woman!
(I miss the preview…)
Shipmates,
Yea, Waxman reminded me a lot of the Queen in “Alice in Wonderland”.. I bet he was just itching to cry out “OFF WITH HER HEAD!”
Maybe we finally found the source of global warming?
Respects,
Cap’n,
From ‘Aesop and Son’ (thank you to the creators of ‘Rocky and Bulwinkle’!)
Those that can – do.
Those that can’t – become Congresscritters
To think the Good People of the 30th Congerssional District (L.A., Malibu, Beverly Hills, etc.) get to spend $150,000 per year for Mr. Waxman to represent them. But then, they get what they pay for.
Caesar? Waxman?
You definetly mean Nero, right?
Waxman reminds me of a small rodent, always has.
B2
?
“How in he$$ am I going to protect these fools?”
Or, more accurately, why in the he$$ would I want to??
Ok, exactly why would that proceeding be called a hearing? The only thing that buffoon heard was his own badgering of the witness. What is the point of even pretending to ask a question if you won’t listen to the answer? Frankly, I could hardly concentrate on what he was bloviating with the repetition of “STFU” going on in my head.
What a waste of oxygen that man is!