John Gibson declares ROVE is OVER on his Big Story
Reported by Chrish - July 20, 2005
There was not a drop of news on the ongoing Rove/Plame scandal on the so-called Big Story today 7/19/05, yet there was time for fluff bits on Howard Stern, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell. Gibson declared, introducing his "My Word" segment,
"Now it's time for My Word and it's a promise. This is the last thing I'm going to say about the Rove/Plame/Wilson/Niger/Iraq war affair.
"The liberal blogs have been attacking me for saying Rove should get a medal and even Bill O'Reilly said I'm a smart guy but wrong on this. All right, let me repeat my position, get it straight just for once.
"Joe Wilson wrote a book about this, (Cover of "Politics of Truth" is shown) which I read. (His emphasis.) And believe it or not, it is quite revealing about the whole affair. Here's what the book tells us:
1. Joe Wilson made his State Department (bones?) by facing down Saddam as the last American diplo in Baghdad just before the Gulf War in 1991.
2. It was that work which got Wilson major kudoes at the State Department and put him to the head of the line to make ambassador.
3. Joe Wilson's whole diplomat deal during the first Gulf War was that the US could not, not, not go all the way to Baghdad, that it would be a disaster for us in the Arab countries.
4. Joe Wilson carries that belief with him to this day. He always believed regime change was wrong, wrong in '91 and wrong in '03.
That's what you need to know about Joe Wilson. And his wife, the spy Valerie Plame, certainly did know that about him. So when she put him up for going to Niger to check on Saddam's WMD, do you think she thought her husband would change his spots while he was away in Africa for two weeks? Doubt it. She knew he'd come back and take the position that nothing he found would justify war to overthrow Saddam.
Now my point was that the American people had a right to know who sent Joe Wilson. Evidently, he thought so too, because he maintained for the longest time that he was sent by Vice President Dick Cheney's office, not admitting his wife had anything to do with it. If the 'cover story' for Wilson's trip is that Cheney sent him, and Wilson's message 'don't go to war to overthrow Saddam' is ignored by Cheney and Bush, and the American public is wondering 'why would Cheney send someone to check out Saddam's WMD and then ignore the advice', don't you think it would be important to know if Cheney didn't send Wilson and that instead Wilson's wife sent him. I do, and that is my word."
Comment;
1. Bill O'Reilly was only half right.
2. I got it exactly "straight" the first time.
3. Repeat after me: Valerie Plame had no authority to send her husband anywhere but the grocery store.
4. Valerie Plame knew her husband was a man of principle who would not recommend an action he thought was wrong for his country, which he has served for years and years.
5. Gibson gets to stay in the doghouse.
The Foxnews.com website titles this rant "Last Word". Here's hoping!
Comparing my transcript and the Fox website I note that
1. The website doesn't include "get it straight just for once."
2. Where Gibson says "just before the Gulf War in 1991" the website reads "just as the Gulf War was starting in 1991." They also use the complete "diploMAT".
3. Gibson adds "for two weeks" to the website's 'do you think she thought her husband would change his spots while he was away in Africa?'
4. He says 'don't you think it would be important to know if Cheney didn't send Wilson and that instead Wilson's wife sent him.'; the website omits "if" and "instead".
These differences don't make much difference in context, but since Fox is so into parsing words these days I thought I'd play along.
