"FORMER CIA operative Valerie Plame is the new Paula Jones -- if with national security credentials and Washington Beltway savoir-faire. Both women filed iffy lawsuits that seemed more designed to discredit a president than to prevail in a court of law.
Jones never could prove that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton hurt her career as a state worker after he allegedly sexually harassed her. Hence, there were no economic damages, as Judge Susan Webber Wright noted when she ruled against Jones.
The suit filed last week by Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, against Bush biggies -- Veep Dick Cheney, Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby and Bush guru Karl Rove -- is equally nonsensical. As CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin put it, "I think this lawsuit ranks somewhere between an actual lawsuit and a publicity stunt."
Overall I actually agree with with this article, specifically when she says:
"The biggest similarity between Plame and Jones, however, is that both the Clinton and Bush administrations could have spared themselves a long legal nightmare if either one had not tried to make itself seem more virtuous than it was. Clinton should have refused to allow Jones' attorneys to depose him. If he had not lied to Jones' attorneys, Special Prosecutor Ken Starr would have had no cause to question Monica Lewinsky.
If Bush had not promised to fire anyone who illegally leaked Plame's info, or if staffers had told the media, that, yes, they had talked about Plame, but they did not realize her job was classified -- then, as one insider told me, it could have been a one-day story. Well, maybe not a one-day story, but surely not a three-year story."
Well we could argue the "promise", or Plame's non-covert status but I will agree that when it comes to these types of "scandals", sometimes it's better to just "get it out". I've long said that the Administration should have hit Joe Wilson head-on from the get go and disputed his false report openly. Speaking of veracity, there was incidentally far more veracity to the Paula Jones story from the get go than was ever evident in the Plame Game. If Jones became a right-wing political pawn, it was after - not before, as it was in the case of Valeria Plame. Paula didn't go to a hotel room in 1991 with an agenda - Bill had that. On the other hand we know now that Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson and others had an agenda long before Novak blew the whistle. That is the distinct difference between the two.
Sa-Lavie.....(excuse my French).
judith miller valerie plame karl rove Valerie Plame PlameGate cheney libby joe wilson woodward bob woodward
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