Local Republican Rob Simmons (former CIA) flip-flops on Plame Outing

[NewJeffCT]

Good ammo for his opponent next year... Rob Simmons of CT has won 3 close races for his seat in a Democratic district. Hopefully, this can start to be his undoing, and good catch by Dave Lightman of the Hartford Courant:

CAUCUS
People, Politics, Punditry
July 19, 2005
MUCH ADO ABOUT MUCH ADO?

Has Rob Simmons flipped?

Democrat Joe Courtney, who is challenging Simmons for the 2nd District congressional seat, thinks so.

In October 2003, Simmons, R-2nd District, told The Courant how uneasy he felt about the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name.

"I hate it. We all hate it. It not only places the agent and his family at risk, it places the asset at risk," the former CIA official said. Asset is a CIA term for contacts.
Simmons added that "anytime an agent's cover is blown, it's a very serious matter. Maybe a matter of life and death."

Last week, Simmons again commented on the Plame matter, which has since involved presidential adviser Karl Rove as a source of a leak to reporters. The blowup over the leak, Simmons said, was "much ado about nothing."

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-caucus0719.artjul19,0,7719751.story

[Tsiyu]

1. Oooh! Bring on the flipflops visuals!

Call out the Swiftboat Traitors For Truth!

War is peace!

Evil is Good!

Something is Nothing!

Don't these people have ANY shame?

[blondeatlast]

10. Strictly a rhetorical question, I take it?

Of course they don't.

[RobertSeattle]

2. Sounds almost like Dick Armey

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/14/armey-on-rove/

Appearing on Fox this 7/14/2005, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey said the following in regards to his assessment of the growing leak scandal:

We’ve got Karl Rove, who is under this constant attack of political malarkey, who has probably the most documented case of his evidence of anyone in the the whole story. So quite frankly, I think the American people are seeing it for what it is right now. More than anything else it’s a political farce not a matter of national security interests.

VERSUS

Here’s what Dick Armey said about the case back in October 2003 when we had no idea who may have been involved:

Now, there was no reason to tell the world about the ambassador’s wife. It was just a short-sighted, self-centered, simple-minded cowardly act of revenge, and who’s paying the cost? The Bush White House… If they ever find , they ought to just — they ought to just kick them out of the White House and prosecute them, because…the greater the pretension, the greater the hypocrisy.

[Disturbed]

3. "the greater the hypocrisy."

Ironic that Armey should mention hypocrisy.

[NewJeffCT]

4. They seem to miss the irony a lot these days

But, what do you expect from the "moral values" crowd?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. spouting the same meme about the desk job

since Plame was at a desk job, nothing was hurt? Excuse me, but Novak blew her company's cover, and destroyed the entire operation, which took years to build. I'm not ex-CIA, but I can tell that is Much Ado....

BTW, where is the 2nd district in CT? Northwest corner of the state, or elsewhere? If NW, there's an inside joke in what was said....

[NewJeffCT]

7. 2nd district is Eastern Connecticut

it's the most rural district in the state and is full of moderate "Lieberman" type Democrats.

[Lecky]

6. Nothing shocks me anymore with these republicans

These people are beyond contempt.

[NewJeffCT]

8. mid-morning kick

for those that get up at reasonable hours.

[wallwriter]

9. Obviously he got a phone call. Toe the line or

prepare for character assassination.

[blondeatlast]

11. And no RNC funding... nt

[NewJeffCT]

14. Last time around...

The polls were a statistical dead heat going into the final weekend with Simmons against poorly funded challenger Jim Sullivan... however, Simmons got a huge ad buy from the NRA in support of his candidacy the last few days and more from the RNC and basically had ads on all over the place 24/7 the last 3-4 days.

[goforit]

12. People in CT won't like this one, eh?

[NewJeffCT]

13. probably not

After going through 10 years of John Rowland scandals, I don't think our tolerance will be very high for more BS... I mean, Rowland was down to like 11 or 12% approval towards the end.