The Character Assassin (by EJ Dionne for Truthdig)

[marmar]

The Character Assassin

Posted on Feb 26, 2007
By E.J. Dionne

WASHINGTON—Even as jurors pondered whether Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff should be convicted for lying about what the Bush administration did to smear one of its critics, there was Cheney accusing another adversary of doing the work of the terrorists.

The fabricate-and-smear cycle illustrated so dramatically during the case of I. Lewis ``Scooter’’ Libby explains why President Bush is failing to rally support for the latest iteration of his Iraq policy. The administration’s willingness at the outset to say anything, no matter how questionable, to justify the war has destroyed its credibility. Its habit of attacking those who expressed misgivings has destroyed any good will it might have enjoyed. Bush and Cheney have lost the benefit of the doubt.

Yet Cheney has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. His latest demon is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he accuses of validating al-Qaeda’s objectives.

``Al-Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will,’’ Cheney told ABC News on Friday by way of explaining his earlier attack on the House speaker. ``That’s their fundamental underlying strategy: that if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we’ll quit and go home.’’

Cheney added: ``And my statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that then we will validate the strategy of al-Qaeda. I said it, and I meant it.’’ .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070226_the_character_assassin/

[EST]

1. You need to seriously modify your subject line-

It suggests that Dionne is a character assassin instead of the truth teller painting a picture of the chief assassin.
Thanks-excellent article.

[EST]

2. As an addendum:

I just love this part-"The attack apparatus has now turned on Fitzgerald, whose record is that of a thoroughly nonpartisan prosecutor. Fitzgerald’s perjury rap against Libby, Cheney allies say, is a cheap attempt to criminalize politics."

It is easy to understand how and why the rabid right wingies should feel unduly threatened and singled out by a hard hitting straight arrow of a prosecutor-most of the criminal activity occurs on that side.