Deep Plame questioning reveals little

If you're like most Americans, myself included, you're tired of the whole Red State/Blue State of our politics. One can't get away from it - on any given issue - there's the blue perspective, the red perspective, and then there's the American voters, standing in the middle, asking themselves, "Who the hell do I believe?"

Part of the whole Red vs. Blue is the reason I started this blog, because I'm so outraged at the incessant spinning of any given issue over the last almost 15 years. Some days I feel hopelessly partisan, and I'm not always sure that's a good thing. I've followed politics since I was eight or nine years old, but I began to get active in politics before the 1992 presidential election, and even more so after the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress. When the Republicans came to power, it seemed like they didn't bring their rule book with them. Anything and everything was fair game, and this reached its zenith with the Clinton Impeachment.

My point with this rambling is that it's Republicans who have made dividing America an art form. There are endless examples during this Bush Administration. In many ways, I'd hoped that the highpoint (or low point) of the Republican "Karl Rove" politics had passed with the November 2006 election, when those tactics were turned aside by American voters. However, the more times goes on, I wonder if it was just a PAUSE instead of the end of the Republicans' Divide and Conquer strategy.

There are so many examples of the GOP's Divide and Conquer, I won't try to even name some from the past year, because I could be here all night. But, one glaring example as of late is the reintroduction of homosexuality into political discourse, but more on that in a separate post.

Another example is today's Valerie Plame testimony, when it didn't take long for partisanship to rear its ugly head...

Here's an exchange between Plame and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) (There's little doubt this is only the beginning, as she isn't done testifying just yet.)...

Westmoreland: Just to keep score, not that you would put yourself in any political category, would you say that you are a Democrat or a Republican?

Plame: Congressman, I'm not sure that that is...

Westmoreland: I know, but I mean, I gave a list of questions I couldn't ask you, and that wasn't one of 'em.

Plame: Yes Congressman, I am a Democrat. [Plame was clearly annoyed]

Westmoreland: You're a Democrat? Okay. [His voice inflection dripping with sarcasm]

How predictable was this? Another canard brought up by a Republican when it looks like his party is in trouble. If this is the type of questions that are going to be asked of witnesses, why not just close the committee down? Or, have Sean Hannity come and ask questions - that way, at least the partisanship and stupidity is apparent before the questions even begin.

Westmoreland's question is the most asinine I've heard any lawmaker ask a witness in a long time. Can "Are you, or are you not a member of the Communist Party" be far behind?

Get used to seeing and hearing that exchange, over and over and over. Fox News may even loop that video on repeat instead of having late night programming. This exchange will slam the door shut for at least 1/3 of the American public. That will be all of the information that sticks in most Americans' minds:

"Well, she's a Democrat, so that's all I needed to know!"

Disgusting, pathetic and laughable.

Notice how Westmoreland phrased the question carefully, while attempting to sound innocent and almost apologetic while asking it. But, he did intentionally and with an covert motive - if he was a lawyer, you could say he was doing it to put a "reasonable doubt" in the minds of many Americans, and there's little doubt he succeeded - it's just a matter of how many. I'm sure after questioning was completed today, Westmoreland was high-fiving and chest bumping with Republican House leadership.

It's just breathtaking to me that this is the type of question ANY member of Congress would ask Plame. Part of the reason this matter has received the attention it has is because this is about the outing of a CIA agent to get revenge on Plame's husband, Joseph C. Wilson, who DARED to stand up against an administration hell bent on war.

Something like this should be above party politics, but of course, people like Westmoreland prevent it from being so. As an American, I'm interested in the truth in this case, no matter where the truth leads, just like I am with the Walter Reed hospital fiasco, the WMD debate, and a whole host of other issues that have come up in the last 6+ years.

Plame was a CIA operative who was working in the counter-proliferation department. (Read: Working to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons - you know, those pesky little things we went to war over. She was working to prevent terrorism - something this administration plants its flag at being the best at.) Plame was a covert operations officer, despite what you might her on Faux News Network, who have worked really hard to make the American public think that Plame was an insignificant CIA clerk or gofer.

I loved her testimony today that her CIA covert status was not common knowledge on "the Georgetown Cocktail Circuit." She had nothing to do with Joseph Wilson going to Niger, other than to come home one night to ask if he would come over to the CIA to talk to some people about the administration's claims of Iraq's WMDs.

As I type these words, the media is already offering its take on Plame's first day of testimony, but I'll end this one here. More thoughts on Plame's testimony later.

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Before I end this one, though - one more thought on Westmoreland, for fun. He cosponsored legislation to have the Ten Commandments displayed in the House of Representatives and Senate, and also in courthouses in a historical setting, separation of church and state be damned.

During an appearance on The Colbert Report (above right), he couldn't name the Ten Commandments when given the opportunity, stumbling after three. (Of course, his PR flak claimed that he got up to seven, but that part was edited out of the tape.) Hey, whatever - I'd think that a high-minded Christian who wishes to have his religious beliefs pushed on the American public would know the Ten Commandments, chapter & verse.