Deep Kool-Aid

EberleVille, Texas
29° 45' North; 95° 23' West

Remember when Abu Grahaib broke and Mr. Rumsfeld was actually on the defensive for two, maybe three, news cycles before the Rovians figured out what to do, which was propaganda (e)genius personified: They turned the pictures themselves into the Kool-Aid.

So, while we can understand all the buzz over AmericaBlog and Rawstory's stuff today about Jeff Gannon/Guckert's lifestyle issues, particularly given the hypocrisy of it, we're starting to get a little concerned that the Rovians are chortling as they watch the Kool-Aid levels rise.

Rise so fast, in fact, that if we're not careful we'll all be swimming in the sticky green stuff soon, and when that happens everybody ends up swallowing at least a little of the darn stuff no matter how hard they try not to.

And that would be a real shame because, as Mary Lou Finlay on CBC's 'As It Happens' demonstrated on Friday, there is a much more important story that is beginning to be buried here....namely that Gannon was knew about a top secret memo regarding the very public flaming of Valerie Plame.

And how did Mary-Lou get the goods? Why, she handed Mr. Gannon the rope and he took it himself. You can listen to it here (Part I - starts @ 11:38min, Gannon starts at 21:30 and has the following exchange with Finlay beginning at about 24:00):

Gannon: When the CIA stuff began, the Valerie Plame debacle, I was the one that was asking, 'How does George Tenant keep his job'?

Finlay: You were a recipient of secret information on that score, were you? Were you told by the Whitehouse, or the....?

Gannon: (cuts in....) Absolutely not! If you read what I asked, and this all came out of an interview I did with Ambassador Wilson... if you look at what I said, I asked him to comment on an internal memo.

Finlay: Right....

Gannon: I didn't say I had it. I didn't even say I read it. I asked him to comment on an internal memo.

Finlay: Yes.....that you hadn't read?

Gannon: Did I say I read it?

Finlay: I'm asking.

Gannon: Well....I didn't say I read it.

Finlay: (incredulous....) What do you mean?

Gannon: Well, my job as a reporter is to get the interview subject to answer questions and I did that.

All's well and good for Mr. Gannon so far right, except perhaps for that little slip up above regarding an internal memo. And this is where most members of the mainstream media would have folded up their tents and their microphones and gone home, right? Well, you'd be wrong if you were talking about Ms. Finlay.

Finlay: Ya. But how would you know about the memo if you hadn't seen it?

Gannon: I could have heard about it somewhere.

Finlay: Somebody asked you to ask about the memo then?

Gannon: I could have overheard a conversation that somebody was having.

Finlay: Right, or somebody could have said, 'Ask him (Wilson) this question'?

Gannon: That's possible too.

So there you have it. Mr. Gannon may be waffling on whether or not he has actually seen or read the memo (which, of course, could be the Rovian double fallback position), but that part is immaterial, because what is clear is that someone told him about the memo. And remember that the memo was classified, and that it dealt with the treasonous act of exposing Mr. Wilson's wife as a CIA operative at a time when the Bush Administration was doing it's best to take Wilson to the mat, hard, in an effort to discredit him and his truth telling.

Thus, the real issue is...who told Mr. Gannon what and when did they tell him?

And lifestyle has absolutely nothing to with that.

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btw: if you want the lifestyle hypocrisy stuff you can get to it via the Liberal Avenger or the ASZ

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