I dare say, Hitch the Snitch is an ass. Says he'd have outed Plame, too.

[BurtWorm]

Note to Bob Somerby, if he's reading: Are you sure you want to be in this asshole's camp?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2122963/

Thus, and to begin with, Joseph Wilson comes before us as a man whose word is effectively worthless. What do you do, if you work for the Bush administration, when a man of such quality is being lionized by an anti-war press? Well, you can fold your tent and let them print the legend. Or you can say that the word of a mediocre political malcontent who is at a loose end, and who is picking up side work from a wife who works at the anti-regime-change CIA, may not be as "objective" as it looks. I dare say that more than one supporter of regime change took this option. I would certainly have done so as a reporter if I had known.

[The Magistrate]

1. Hitchens, Sir

Is the sort of thing dogs leave piles of on the lawn....

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. No, he's a journalist...

so to his mind, it's the story that matters and not the consequences. Most of the hacks who make up the press would kill their mothers to have a story like that. Just look at the mileage and notoriety Miller and Cooper have gotten out of it.

[BurtWorm]

5. For a second I thought you were distinguishing between journalists

and hacks. ;)

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. A hack is just a journalist you don't like...

or should that be "a journalist is a hack you agree with"?

[BurtWorm]

19. Now that's a definition!

For Ambrose Bierce. :toast:

[Taylor Mason Powell]

3. Wow.

So many untruths and smears in that one paragraph alone - it's positively breathtaking.

[BurtWorm]

4. The whole thing is similarly breathtaking.

[punpirate]

6. Hitchens needs some drying out, a high colonic...

... two or three sessions of electro-shock therapy and more than a few dope slaps. Even the "effectively worthless" routine is something he's stolen from Michael Kingsley.

I'm beginning to think that Hitchens, as an ex-pat Brit, is simply enjoying the turmoil, takes great personal glee in stirring the shit and watching the colonists sputter as the froth hits the level of the country's nasal passages.

Either that or he really admires simple-minded fascists in action....

[Wetzelbill]

9. He's a show pony

He likes to stir shit up and get in the spotlight every once in a while. Total self promoter. When it became en vogue to bash Clinton he switched his political leanings and became a suck up novelty so he could get attention.

[TomClash]

16. Read Bonfire of the Vanities and the Clinton Wars nt

[LynnTheDem]

8. Let's see...Wilson was CORRECT; he was NOT a "mediocre politcal

malcontent" according to President George H.W. Bush; his wife did NOT give him "side work"; "regime change" is ILLEGAL; and damn the CIA for taking the blame for "providing bad intell" to support regime change for bush, AND for being "anti regime change" at the same time...

Hmmmm.

Yep, Hitch is a total fucking asshole of a moran.

[Swamp Rat]

10. "Hitch is a total fucking asshole of a moran."

That needs to be a Wikipedia entry. ;)

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. That graphic of Gen. Ripper is one of your creepiest yet.

Moreso than Lizard Cheney, even.

[Swamp Rat]

13. POE

Purity Of Essence.

[Catherine Vincent]

12. Amen, Swamp!

:hi:

[Swamp Rat]

14. Way'at cat_girl25!!!

:hi:

[TomClash]

15. Chris Hitchens is simple to understand

Just follow the money and you'll find his philosophy.

[farmbo]

17. This booze-addled popinjay is suffering longterm memory loss

"What do you do, if you work for the Bush administration, when a man of such quality is being lionized by an anti-war press?"

The New York Times, the Washington Post, LAT...they were all pro-war cheerleaders at the time. There WAS NO anti-war press.

This is probably not so much revisionist history for Hitchens as an extended blackout period.

[fasttense]

18. The continual smearing of Wilson's name has little bearing on

outing his wife. I know the repukes like to tell you what a liar, cheat and scoundrel Wilson is. SO what? Wilson can be a drug runner for all I care.

The outing of a CIA agent is a separate issue. True Wilson seems to provide the motive for the traitors, but your dislike of Wilson's character means you can out a CIA agent? I don't understand the logic. Outing a CIA agent is a traitorous act. If you don't like Wilson and what he has to say then get him fired. But outing a CIA agent because you don't like his husband is too stupid. It's as if the repukes don't realize husband and wife are two separate and distinct people.