So let’s not judge old Bobby too harshly:
The day after Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech before the U.N. Security Council Wednesday, TV commentators and newspaper editorials, and even many liberal pundits, declared their support for the Bush administration’s hard-line stance on Iraq. CNN’s Bill Schneider said that “no one” disputed Powell’s findings. Bob Woodward, asked by Larry King on CNN what happens if we go to war and don’t find any WMD, answered: “I think the chance of that happening is about zero. There’s just too much there.”
Will no meteor rid us of these meddlesome Villagers?
Baud
Drones bad, meteors good.
Keith G
Would that meteor not deal death to the others who were true believers even though there were reasons not to believe?
Felonius Monk
We are counting on “the” Friend of Hamas to poop on their parade.
JPL
no…fyi..I’ve been told that Powell thinks the pres doesn’t listen .. Of course I asked then why does he support him and then there was a well..
Irving
@Keith G: They’ll greet us as liberators!
PsiFighter37
I can’t wait until someone from the Village of Idiots tells me that the filibuster of a very uncontroversial judicial nominee (Caitlin Halligan) is justified because BOTH SIDES DO IT and I GET PAID TO CHUG WATER STREAMING FROM THE GOP’S ASSHOLE.
Fuck these clowns, and especially fuck Mark Halperin with the chicken who gets fucked way too often.
Oh, and fuck Bob Woodward, too. Apparently he took a lesson to heart too seriously when it came to Deep Throat.
PF37 +4 Sierra Nevadas and +1 Chipotle Burrito Bowl
DougJ, Friend of Hamas
@Keith G:
They will shower us with meteors and sweet dates.
beltane
Since none of these monsters will ever face justice, or even suffer the mildest of consequences for their evil speech and actions, the least someone could do is create a “Divine Comedy” interactive game where users get to place pundits in the circle of hell where they belong.
Hill Dweller
@PsiFighter37: The Halligan filibuster reportedly infuriated several Senate Dems. We’ll see if anything comes of it.
The Republicans just don’t want Obama putting any judges on the DC circuit.
Keith G
@DougJ, Friend of Hamas: I was thinking of our Blogmaster. He was a very true believer and attacker of moderates and those who urged caution.
Would he be targeted for celestial comeuppance?
PeakVT
A clip of Huckleberry Graham from earlier today.
Redshirt
Center Right Argle Bargle.
Why won’t the President work with Republicans and resign? That would solve ALL these issues!
Reasonable 4ce
An explosive 4-way car wreck on M Street in Georgetown involving Bob Woodward, David Gregory, Cokie Roberts and Maureen Dowd wouldn’t cure all of the Press Corpse’s ills, but it would be a start.
Mike in NC
How about a smallish meteorite that would simply take out Woodward’s mansion in Georgetown? Hopefully while he’s at home, of course.
wenchacha
One big problem is that quite of few of our “most respected” journalists, politicians, and think-tankers are just plain wrong in their predictions for the future. When they fail in their prognostication, no matter; that was then and this is now.
Also, those are serious and respectable people who have a face that is familiar to the public. No point having some accurate person on, when nobody knows who they are, anyway.
Spaghetti Lee
You know in the Simpsons Movie, Springfield had a giant glass dome placed over it? What if we did that to Georgetown/Bethesda?
Redshirt
@Mike in NC: Two words: Targeted Micrometeorites.
Forkbeard
@Hill Dweller: I very much doubt anything will come of it. Our Senate Dems are too wired to preserve their own privelege, and they know the media will instantly come down on THEM for “breaking the agreement” they made, even if the Republicans clearly have already broken it. At best, they get a “both sides do it”.
Joel
@Keith G: Is this an argument that the true believers (in the Iraw War) deserve quarter from the scorn they richly deserve?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I swear if I had Soros money I would just run commercials of Booby saying that, and I’m sure that’s not the only clip, in the greater DC area for a week. Along with McCain saying he’s proud of having picked Palin.
Roger Moore
@Reasonable 4ce:
Actually, I think that the thing that would really start curing our ills would be a round of mass firings of pundits who severely fucked up their predictions. I realize that the freak traffic accident you’re describing is more likely, but a guy can always dream.
Narcissus
@Hill Dweller: Senate Dems won’t do anything.
trollhattan
@PeakVT:
lord knows, when I’m floating on a chunk of my house on the floodwaters, there’s nothing better than an AR15 for a paddle.
What a fuckwit.
Redshirt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wish a super liberal billionaire would pipe up and play the Soros role.
There must be a few liberal billionaires, right?
Ronnie Pudding
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Where would you run those ads? I’d bet most outlets would refuse them.
Bruce s
Larry King a more prescient journalist than Bob Woodward. Who knew?
mai naem
I think the Obama’a should set up a dinner at some rural villa and invite all the village idiots, get delayed by national security matters and have the villa destroyed by a mysterious gas leak. Ofcourse this would have to be set up as a weekend self serve dry picnic so that none of those pesky little people who, you know, may record this private meeting, would be there. The ones who absolutely have to be there have to include – Halperin, Friedman, Krauthammer, Goldberg, OReilly, Erin Burnett, Will Cain, Hannity, Erik the Erik, Dennis Miller, Sully, Mona Charen, Amity Schlaes, Brooks,Drudge, All Politico journos/pundits, Morning Ho, all the CNBC hosts except for Faber and Liesman, Malkin, Will,Gigot, Jen Rubin, Hume and Ferguson. Also too any Brit Tory working in this country as a pundit.
I wonder if Cheney has ever fantasized the above scenario – ofcourse with names switched to lefty pundits.
Scotius
@Mike in NC:
It would be a waste of a perfectly good meteorite if he wasn’t home at the time.
raven
Anyone else read about the airline crews working together to get a man home to see his dying mother?
Concerned Citizen
What happened with Woodward? I’m freaked out by that guy. I’m a big Hunter Thompson fan and an avid hater of Nixon and Reagan. I always thought Woodward was part of the team.
Now, he’s a Fox News douchebag. Anyone here in the same age range as him? Anyone have an explanation?
David Koch
Hill Dweller
Some of the former Obama administration people are on twitter ridiculing the Village.
Favreau(former Obama speech writer) has been especially good. He verbally smacked ABC’s Rick Klein around after he complained about the cost of Obama’s security detail for his dinner with Republicans tonight, after ending WH tours.
mdblanche
Where’s a bunch of drunken meteors freshly returned from the Crusades when you need them?
eemom
Let’s do.
Sometimes (well, a lot of the time) I think you spend more time on these fuckwits than they’re worth, but in this case I approve. Keep hammering on that worthless hack who got a fucking lucky break he didn’t deserve almost half a century ago and hasn’t written a useful word since.
Anne Laurie
@Concerned Citizen:
Some pepole say Woodward was a CIA plant when he helped take down Nixon (who was seriously besmirching the Permanent Security State’s reputation). Some people say that Troutmouth Bob is now in the prime demographic for the onset of senile dementia. Some people believe both explanations.
Was HSThompson ever a Woodward booster, or vice versa? I remember HST mocking the WaPo heroes as gapejawed Georgetown status-quo boosters who stumbled into something bigger than they could understand, but that might be personal bias.
JPL
@raven: It’s a touching story but it often happens. You just don’t hear about it unless the news reports it. bah humbug
Chris
@Concerned Citizen:
There have been various, sometimes contradictory, but all interesting explanations for Woodward on this blog for the last week or two.
Personally, the observation I find most relevant is the one that he’s never actually been an investigative reporter, but rather a stenographer for people in high places. Watergate was him acting as the voice of a highly placed member of the FBI with an axe to grudge against the president. Iraq was, presumably, him serving as a voice for highly placed Bush administration officials.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I saw that and found it heartwarming.
David Koch
@Anne Laurie: Bob has always been an idiot. He revealed that Mark Felt first came to him prior to watergate with information that Agnew was taking bribes. But Bob didn’t write it because he and wait for it…. Richard Cohen (then Maryland editor for WaPa) couldn’t believe former Maryland governor Ted Agnew could be involved in a bribe scheme.
So they completely blew that story. Surpise. Surprise.
It was just dumb luck that he was assigned to cover a saturday morning arraignment of the watergate bunglers. Even then, he was such a bad write, he need Bernstein to rewrite all his material.
hells littlest angel
That would obviate the need for FEMA Coffins.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: If you read Woodward’s books, it becomes very obvious who his sources were. They always come out looking tough, smart, and sensible.
SamR
@Concerned Citizen: Did you sleep thru Bush’s Presidency? Woodward long ago traded integrity for access.
patroclus
@Omnes Omnibus: You don’t have to read Woodward’s books for that – a simple trip through the footnotes will illustrate who his sources are. The hagiographical stenographies of the Iraq war contained such gems as Bush, George W….courage of (Pages 234-89)…steadfastness of (Pages 354-769) et. seq.; honesty (Pages 451-99); certainty of WMD in Iraq (Pages 1-789).
fuckwit
Keep fucking that chicken.
Omnes Omnibus
@fuckwit: I think the chicken is getting sore. Just sayin’.
Zach
Sometimes I think I’m the only one in the world for whom Powell’s presentation was as close as it came to proof that the United States had no real indication at all that Iraq possessed any chemical/biological/nuclear weapons or active programs to research them.
Consider that at the time Powell gave his UN presentation, US troops were gathering at Iraq’s borders preparing to go in and dismantle his supposed program. Now, Powell goes and spills the beans about these bio-weapons RVs and knows exactly what to hide before the invasion. The Bush administration showed over and over again in the lead-up to war that there was no interest in keeping any intelligence close to the vest. None at all. Yet, compare Powell’s presentation to JFK’s public proof of Soviet missiles in Cuba almost half a century earlier. Suffice to say, the technical quality of our intelligence should’ve improved over that time (better imaging, etc) and Iraq, post-Gulf-War-I, was in worse shape to protect secrets than the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. And we got a bad Powerpoint presentation and a vial of anthrax and pretended it was convincing.
Jebediah
@mai naem:
I would pick one or two that I loathed the most, and leave them out. Let them spend the rest of their miserable lives heart-broken that they weren’t important enough to assassinate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Zach: You are not the only one. The other thing for me was the fact that Saddam was allowing UN inspectors in and they weren’t finding anything. In my view, the UN inspectors had no reason to cover for Saddam and and would not have done so. Of course, telling people that ten years ago made some kind of sissy because “Saddam was a bad guy and he has to go.” And besides, what kind of army officer had I been if I wasn’t all in favor of randomly invading people? My answer: the kind that did not want people getting killed for no good reason.
Brutusettu
The WH was just oh so serious in their belief that Saddam had/was trying get WMD, that they just assumed the UN would stumble upon some. That’s surely what was going on.
Zach
@Omnes Omnibus: “The other thing for me was the fact that Saddam was allowing UN inspectors in and they weren’t finding anything.”
Yes, I should have mentioned that the other nail in the coffin for me (re: Iraq probably not having any WMDs or programs to develop them) was Blix’s UN presentations/reports in Spring 2003. In summary, Iraq allowed total access throughout the country with no notice at all and private interviews w/ scientists. Most remarkably, Iraq allowed unrestricted U2 flyovers AND was destroying missiles that may or may not have exceeded the allowed range at the very moment the world’s most powerful military was organizing for a certain invasion.
Yet, the biggest story in the American media to come out of Blix’s Spring 2003 report to the UN was that he’d found some remote controlled airplanes. No joke.
Edit: I recall that I was actually in the “of course Saddam has WMD; everyone says so (even France!)” camp until the end of 2002 or so. I didn’t think it justified an invasion, though.
Cluttered Mind
@Jebediah: I nominate Michelle Malkin for that role. She seems like the kind of person who would REALLY be annoyed if she thought no one cared about her enough to take a shot at her.
Jebediah
@Cluttered Mind:
Well, I loathe her pretty loathefully, so I am OK with that choice…
johnny aquitard
@Concerned Citizen:
The President is Near.
I’m serious. The unfathomable unthinkable happened, twice, and a black man is in control of their future, and that is all it takes for most of Woodward’s generation to wildly shit themselves.
We aren’t going to be shut of these people and their toxic shit until they die off. In ten years enough of them will be gone to make a shift and then it will be a whole new ballgame.
James Gary
@John Rohan:
Of the five links you listed, I took the time to read the two (NBC and DOD) that weren’t on wingnut sites and “strictly speaking,” the events to which you’re referring are a footnote to a footnote. John Rohan: do you think the WMDs that actually existed in Iraq justified Woodward’s comments?
brendancalling
@Hill Dweller: hahaha. Too late now. Thanks Harry, for keeping your powder dry.