Monday, October 23, 2006
Hmmmm
Prior to this week, AIPAC's most recent entry into the news concerned indictments for spying on the US by Larry Franklin, a neocon who was working for fellow neocon Douglas Feith at Feith's garbage factory (aka The Office of Special Plans), and the group's ties to conservative operations such as the American Enterprise Institute. Given AIPAC's current high-profile ties to Republicans and neocons, it was rather surprising to see Time magazine's Timothy J. Burger come out with a piece that attempted to link a Congressional Democrat, Jane Harman of California, to AIPAC in a manner that nebulously implied all manner of wrongdoing on Harman's part without actually providing any hard evidence therefor. The interesting thing is that the article seems to be attacking Harman for taking AIPAC money, when scads of legislators in both parties take AIPAC money. So why is it suddenly bad when she does it, and OK for everyone else? Why single out Harman? One reason may be found here:
This week, on the request of Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL), Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) suspended a Democratic staffer’s access to classified information. Hoekstra said the suspension would remain in place pending a review to determine if that staffer leaked a classified National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times.Looks like taking out Harman's staffer wasn't enough for BushCo or the GOP. It's not just me connecting those dots. None other than Michelle Malkin, B-list right-wing scrivener, has also made the linkage between Ray La Hood's attacks on Harman and Burger's Time article. Is BushCo planning to totally trash AIPAC just to get at Harman and/or create a "Democrat scandal" to take people's minds off Iraq and Mark Foley in time to help out Congressional Republicans next month? It's beginning to look that way. (And I wonder what the non-neocon-aligned members of AIPAC must be thinking right now.) [UPDATE: I suspect that another motive behind the attempt to create a faux scandal around Harman is the desire to distract the media's attention from stories of impending Republican indictments, like this one.]Today on Fox News, LaHood said, “I’ll tell you why I did it. The reason I did it was because Jane Harman released the Duke Cunningham — who sat on our Intelligence committee — report.” That report, which detailed the misconduct of Cunningham, who is now serving a jail term, was not classified.
A Fox anchor asked, “So, it’s payback?” LaHood responded, “There are some of us on the other side who can equally play politics, and I’m not afraid to do it.”
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