cohen is just another chimp loving, corrupt and bribed asshole...
Posted by headxray at October 13, 2005 06:56 AMIt was only a harmless case of character assassination and an inadvertant ricochet!
No harm no foul?
Posted by snark at October 13, 2005 07:15 AMNo dead body no foul.
Posted by at October 13, 2005 07:24 AMplame was the target, not wilson.
Posted by at October 13, 2005 07:49 AMCohen's column should go in a time capsule with Sally Quinn's infamous fall '98 "Clinton soiled our town" screed, as illustration of just how willfully deluded the "liberal" press was during the Clinton/Bush administrations.
The Beltway pundits have been consistently a bit behind the public, but now the gap (to judge by recent polls) is a chasm. Assuming the reports are true, and indictments fly, Cohen's view of this will not be widely reflected.
Posted by demtom at October 13, 2005 07:51 AMcohen supported the war, IIRC, so his idiocy is compounded by his guilt/complicity. in related news, dr. kelly wrote judy an email the day he killed himself. (can't decide whether to put quotes around those last 2 words.)
Posted by benjoya at October 13, 2005 08:09 AMThat column may be the most jaw-dropping example of Kool Kids "journalism" I've ever seen. The word "stooge" doesn't even begin to cover a columnist who's that deeply in thrall to the administration.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 13, 2005 08:28 AMThis man needs to be told what an idiot he is.
(cohenr@washpost.com)
This kind of writing is insane and is part of the mental distortion of reality going on in this country. The Republicans have succeeded up to this point in creating doubt around a whole host of facts and around reasonable thinking..... in general. If they say it loud and long enough, people of goodwill get confused. That is how evil works. Most people are decent and just don't get how some are willing to scream out, repeatedly, a lie. The Plame affair concerns whether our country can live the truth or not. Write Cohen here: cohenr@washpost.com
Posted by suzanne at October 13, 2005 08:31 AMShill boy Cohen is a dual loyalty neocon and always has been. At times like this their freak flag flies high and wide.
Cohen and those like him will do anything to try to stop Fitzgerald from following this thing to where it ultimately must lead: to the heart of the matter. Who lied us into this war? Why? Who benefits from lying the USA into an illegal and unjustified war that has earned America nothing but enmity from Islam and alienation from the rest of the world?
I wonder, why would Cohen be threatened by the pursuit of truth in this grave matter? To who or what does he a have a greater allegiance than the truth?
Posted by Protos at October 13, 2005 08:34 AMI suppose it matters not to this bespectacled monkey that outing Plame's identity ruined 20 years of work on WMD.
This isn't "par for the course" in DC. What fucking bullshit!
Posted by thunderhawk at October 13, 2005 08:46 AMCross posted on comment threads at Americablog and Atrios.
Sounds like the cool kids are bemoaning their loss of monopoly power over information. Apparently people like Cohen do not like transparency, which is what the Fitzgerald investigation will force in certain matters. Ironically it is precisely the effects of this monopoly power that is driving the growth and interest in blogs like this one.
See this interesting anectdote for some background on Cohen.
Source:
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000596.html
This on the latest op-ed from the same blogger.
Source:
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000642.html
And finally this little tidbit from same.
Source:
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000376.html
Does Cohen have Karl Rove holding a gun to his head while he writes these asine columns of his? First he defends Bill Bennett, now this. Talk about a classic example of Beltway whorism.
I say just ignore him. He's clearly lost his touch and frankly, he's in denial with what's coming.
Posted by gf120581 at October 13, 2005 09:22 AMThey didn't just insult Plame, they destroyed her cover, which was the cover of other CIA operatives, and a major CIA operation against nuclear proliferation. Anyone who "worked" at the "firm" that Plame "worked" at is now exposed. Sounds like a real crime to me.
That it was done as part of an team effort to defend the fraudulent case that a White House cabal created to grease the skids toward war only makes it worse.
And trotting out the old "his wife sent him" canard, at this late date, is frankly delusional.
Posted by biggerbox at October 13, 2005 09:39 AMWait, I just read the article again. It's satire, right?
I liked Maureen Dowd's Harriet notes better. It was funnier.
Posted by biggerbox at October 13, 2005 09:47 AMNo dead body no foul.
Given that logic, Clinton's blow job mattered not.
Posted by ann at October 13, 2005 09:53 AMrichard cohen has been writing this sort of stuff for years. he loves nothing better than to take a perverse stand on an issue of the moment. the problem is he lacks judgement as to which issues are appropriate for a little perverse fun and which are not.
cohen is a company man. he knows which side his pay scheck is buttered on. after all, wapo editors len downy and robert woodward have made it clear to their journalists that they regard the plame matter as not much of a story.
why they might hold this view is baffling, considering that it is a great story happening in their own 'hood, whether the outcome be trivial or of great consequence. perhaps their view of the plame affair might be connected in some way to those books about the bush presidency woodward has been writing with downey's support. perhaps downey and woodward consider the greater beneift for society to be their maintaining the trust and respect of the bush white house-- the better to provide us citizens with inside information on this presidency. perhaps it's just woodward's love of fame and closeness to power: he is the gollum of american journalists, a wide-mouthed, unctous-voiced amphibian whose "precious" is access to the famous and powerful to serve as scribe for their actions and lives.
cohen's silly column is just one of many dozens one could cite from wapo columnists that support the proposition that the wapo needs to fire all of its columnists-- without exception -- and its editorial page editor as well -- and start building a new editorial page from scratrch.
as a group, current columns do not embody a wide range of sound,if divergent, reasoning: or thoughtful,occassionally wise, opinion. the post editorials embody vainglory, ignorance, sloppy reasoning, partisan political activity (i said, activity: think george will) and individual perversity on a scale unlike any other paper i know.
the wsj editiorial may be fiercely, foolishly, laughingly partisan, but it is focused and consistent). the wapo editorial pages are a shambles: a junk yard of wrecked and rusted ideology; weedy,peevish, public scoldings; snakey political activity; and dead-end dirt paths of self-serving propoganda.
those pages are the better to allow any position of power which can gain access to wapo's editors to state its case. they are the worse to educate the public and encourage constructive thinking about problems our society faces.
cohen's column on the plame affair illustrates this nicely. it represents a position of power, but misinforms and misleads the public about the seriousness of the issues underlying the plame investigation to whit:
leading the nation to war for political gain when war was not necessary
designing and using a government propaganda machine to aid in this war effort,
attacking a critic of this policy (amb wilson) not on the merits of his argument but through his family, specifically his wife
destroying a covert u.s. gvoernment program to gather information on proliferation of nuclear weapons which, by the way, is the only real weapon of mass destruction.
Puh-leeze. With facial hair like that, he's GOT to be hiding something! Soon enough he and the pooh-bahs like him will be all but invisible anyway, let's hope. (:>
Posted by Donald Cormac at October 13, 2005 10:25 AMWow, One question to Mr. Cohen. Since when did issues concerning our National Security and Taking a Nation to War become "trivial"?
I think I know what the "missing" Karl Rove has been doing lately? Looks like he has been writing op-eds and maybe even got this one published under Richard Cohen's byline??
Either that or I would say that Mr. Cohen is someone who realizes that he is no longer part of the A-list crowd and also has come to realize that he is considered a "Has Been" journalist/opinion maker. The writing style and tone (what a whiner) is so... junior high. I think this op-ed is a major meltdown by this once "respected" opinion maker who appears to long for the simpler glory days of his yesteryear as a member of the Washington Kool Kidz. How sad.
Posted by emal at October 13, 2005 11:00 AMNo dead body no foul.
Given that logic, Clinton's blow job mattered not.
Well, I've heard orgasm referred to as "the little death." But I think this is a clear IOKIYAR case.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 13, 2005 11:18 AMWow! Fact, specifics, and the truth I can see why you are all ready to storm his office and burn him at the stake. He ACCURATELY points out that there was probably NO CRIME committed and that this special prosecutor was a knee-jerk reaction to manufactured scandal that never happened. He also points out that to date not a SINGLE fact has been leaked about the investigation so the digital lynch mob screaming for Rove will not be satisfied. That is because they have whipped themselves into a frenzy of hate and are demanding blood based on conspiracies they generated. Can’t wait for the made for TV movie where Joe Wilson leads an expedition into the hills of Niger while his wife is recruiting/turning spies at the DC A&P. I wonder who will play Wilson? I heard Boy George is available.
Posted by Cyber Sarge at October 13, 2005 11:24 AMthere was probably NO CRIME committed
and as we know, the criminal code is full of "probably"s and "i guess" and "my gut tells me"
I wonder who will play Wilson? I heard Boy George is available.
that's right, wilson's a faggot. typically brilliant analysis, sarge.
Posted by at October 13, 2005 11:36 AMGosh, sarge, what a rich fantasy life you have, I almost envy you. Except for the drooling idiot part, of course.
Posted by iamcoyote at October 13, 2005 11:44 AMSarge,
Do us all a favor and ACCURATELY sever a major artery somewhere on your body.
Thanks in advance!
Posted by snark at October 13, 2005 11:47 AMHas everyone caught the Harriet Miers "War on Christmas" story? Atrios has it covered. Hilarious. I think I'll send a link to the story to Bill O'Reilly. It's just about time for him to rev up the old "they're out to get Christmas" meme. Should be interesting.
Posted by snark at October 13, 2005 12:05 PMwe only get one column a day on TLC lately, so OFF THREAD...The Bush teleconference with the poor bomb fodder (formerly know as GI's) in Iraq was pathetic. What was interesting is that MSNBC wasted no time in exposing the episode as Pure Politics, with scripted answers/questions fed to the soldiers....then documented how Scotty Mc lied straight to the press/public about it. Bush's telling the soldiers that he was too scared to come visit in person was a priceless expose of a coward. He needs to find some more old lady workout partners to get his hormones up, dig out his codpiece and flight jacket and get over there. Teleconference to soldiers in a war zone....ugh
Posted by T2 at October 13, 2005 12:36 PMDo us all a favor and ACCURATELY sever a major artery somewhere on your body.
Fergawdsake, the guy's a troll; accuracy is hardly his forte.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 13, 2005 12:41 PMIt seems that what Cohen is most pissed about is the absence of leaks from the prosecution. How can he write insipid columns if they aren't leaking like Starr? "I have no idea what Fitzgearald will do. My own diligent efforts to find out anything have come to naught." If he doesn't know anything, why is he telling Fitzgearld to leave? Why is he speculating about trivial charges? How idiotic can one man be? The paragraph right before the quote above ha writes: "Now we are told by various journalistic sources that Fitzgerald might not indict anyone for the illegal act he was authorized to investigate-but some other one..."
Okay, what the hell is a journalistic source? Another writer who doesn't know shit from shine-ola?
Then he goes on to complain that if people are prosecuted for exposing CIA agents, then the practice of leaking will stop. Dude, that was the crime in the first place. What a putz!
Following on T2" comment -- I cannot believe this. It's as if the prez is talking to children. Everything he says is so simplistic and repetitive. It's too painful to listen to all the way through for me, but it's availavble at whitehouse.gov -- if you missed it earlier as I did.
Posted by dorita at October 13, 2005 12:55 PMI cannot believe that so many people opine that the outing of Valerie Plame and her NOC is not a big deal. How many years of intenisve spywork were compromised when Brewster-Jennings was exposed as a CIA cover company? How many agents' lives were endangered or perhaps killed? How many foreign operatives associated with those compromised agents were killed? How much intelligence on WMD will now go undiscovered because we lost those operatives? And for those who don't care about lives and security but measure everything in dollars, how many taxpayer dollars were blown in setting up this operation which is now useless? And all for some political payback? WTF? For all of the apologists who say 'Well, they didn't mean to compromise her cover,' I say to hell with you! How can you be such idiots?
Adrift on the Cosmic Sea | 10.13.05 - 10:29 am
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The Truth | Homepage | 10.13.05 - 12:44 pm | #
I heard Boy George is available. Posted by Cyber Sarge
Which do you prefer, Boy George or Jeff Gannon for your special reamings?
I hear that Jeffrey screwed the producer and got the part.
Posted by Judith at October 13, 2005 09:58 PM"It seems that what Cohen is most pissed about is the absence of leaks from the prosecution." Exactly my point! There isn't enough information around to speculate about anything. Yet the LLL and fever swamps seem to have Rove/Libby exiled to Devil's Island for crimes they have yet to be charged with.
Posted by Cyber Sarge at October 14, 2005 09:05 AMcyber smuck..you've wet the bed again..now go lay down...
Posted by headxray at October 14, 2005 09:49 AM
What's the point in posting replies like that?
Or may be this is a kind of bot, that is posting using the name "Linked"?
Wow,Mr.Cohen,it took you 743 words to condemn a writer of misleading millions of readers.It would be a safe bet to assume,though,that of the millions who have read,"A Million Little Pieces",that several hundred,or perhaps even 743,took the message of the book and applied it to their lives,in a positive way.True,it appears he has embellished on much of its content,but I am having a hard time recalling such an article from you condemning the fact checking and truthfulness of your fellow journalist,Judith Miller.Her article in the N.Y. Times about WMDs in Iraq,before the war,is widely believed,by most,as a fabrication also.Her lies have obviously caused quite a bit of harm to this country.By the way,those flag-draped coffins that arrive from Iraq and Afghanistan,are not carrying persian rugs.In the future,maybe you should submit your articles to the editor of the Posts Style section,instead.That way,you can leave the editorial writing to the reporters who comment on more important issues,rather than taking up valuable space griping about so called misleading writing. P.S.Take Charles Krauthammer and his critic piece,on "Munich"with you!
Posted by Eric G. at January 19, 2006 12:08 PM