A Funny Joke

Tom Maguire attempts Valerie Plame snark. He thinks it is hilariously funny that Plame denies she sent her husband to Niger, and so he comes up with this joke:

And how will this be treated in the movie? Will Val be dragged into her boss's office at gunpoint? Or depending on how they want to position the film, the producer could have the CIA waterboard her into giving up her husband's name - good looking woman, bondage, water everywhere... just thinking out loud and trying to help. TGIF.

Lovely.

Maguire offers as evidence that Plame lied today when she said she did not "recommend" Wilson this bit from Fitzgerald's indictment of Libby:

On or about June 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke with a senior officer of the CIA to ask about the origin and circumstances of Wilson's trip, and was advised by the CIA officer that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was believed to be responsible for sending Wilson on the trip.

"Was believed to be" -- that's some hard evidence there. He also adds this from James Joyner's account of CIA official Robert Greiner's testimony at the trial:

That person “mentioned” that Wilson’s wife worked in the division and was the impetus behind the trip. “I am certain the individual did not tell me the name, only that it was Amb Wilson’s wife.”

Of course, Greiner also added quite a bit of this sort of stuff:

Did you tell him about the wife connection? “I believe I did.” He thinks he told him “something to the effect” that the wife was “why Wilson was sent” but mentioned it “only in passing.... During FBI testimony, “do you recall if you talked about the topic of Mr. Wilson’s wife with Mr. Libby?” He told them that “if I think back, I think I would have said something to Mr. Libby but could not say for certain.”

At the grand jury? “That I may have” but wasn’t sure.”

Since then, have you given it any more thought? Yes. “I’ve been going it over and over in my mind.” Eventually, he came to “feel guilty” thinking “maybe I had revealed too much,” eventually revealing the identity of a CIA officer.

"Proof" is not commonly defined as "the secondhand information of someone with every incentive to have a fuzzy memory."

Anyway, you sure can see why Plame deserves the waterboarding torture snark.

Or maybe not. I'm going to go be disgusted now.

Comments

[Spokane Moderate]

Or depending on how they want to position the film, the producer could have the CIA waterboard her into giving up her husband's name - good looking woman, bondage, water everywhere... just thinking out loud and trying to help.

He misspelled "crying for help."

[pseudonymous in nc]

Tom-Tom has gone from being annoying devils' advocate to full-on bullshit merchant. And he really can't do teh funny.

The idea that the wingnuts have been saying 'when we meant "not covert", we only meant "not covert for IIPA purposes"' is rendered risible by several thousands yuk-yuk 'deskjockey' moments.

[sdf (Stu)]

Hahah waterboarding is so sexy.

Like most forms of torture.

If, you know, you're a very disturbed individual (and/or watch too much "24").

[iamcoyote]

Stu, I have no doubt that this is what Tom has in mind.

[Doug H.]

Just to cross-reference, Maguire's meltdown is also apparent in this thread over at Obsidian Wings.

As Cleek put it: "... right now it looks like you're simply trying to argue against each and every aspect of a bunch of different (large and complex) issues with no point other than "argue with the liberals"."

[Interrobang]

The misogyny! The misogyny! It burrrnss...

Nobody would have even suggested anything like anything had Plame been male. It's her bad luck (in terms of weathering the media storm) that she happens to be conventionally attractive, which is not giving the Male Chauvinist Pig Brigade™ an out; just saying that it's only worse that way.