Joseph Wilson is not helping his credibility nor his claims of non-partisanship by appearing at press conferences with Chuck Schumer, with Schumer calling for Rove to be fired/have his security clearance revoked.
*** Update ***
Oh, good grief. Three dimensions of source credibility are competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill. Competence speaks to the expertise an individual is perceived to possess. Trustworthiness gets to the appearance of character. Goodwill gets to the appearance that the subject has my or your best interests at heart. All of these are subjective evaluations that viewers formulate when viewing the communication behaviors of a particular subject
When Joseph Wilson appears at a podium with a known political operative, in this case Charles Schumer, it strikes directly at the dimension of character/trustworthiness. Meaning, it hampers his credibility. It makes it much more difficult to refute charges by some in the GOP that Wilson is a political hack and a fierce partisan. In other words, Joseph Wilson is not helping his credibility nor his claims of non-partisanship by appearing at press conferences with Chuck Schumer…
It doesn’t change the fact that Wilson may or may not have been telling the truth about any specific event, but it damn sure does affect his overall credibility.
In fact, maybe some of you reality-based community members should ask yourself this question:
“Does Joseph Wilson appearing on stage with Charles Schumer make it EASIER or more DIFFICULT to persuade people that Wilson is non-partisan?”
Then, when you are done, you can ask yourself a whole series of questions, like, “Why might an attorney warn his/her client not to say ANYTHING in public before a trial or while under investigation?” Or, “Why would an attorney tell their client not to appear publicly with a known criminal?” Could it be that it might be used to impeach their credibility in trial?
Really, guys. Get a grip. I didn’t say Joseph Wilson is the root of all evil or that Rove is a saint, or anything of the sorts. I made a non-controversial statement that, if you would put your passions and your complete convictions that Rove is Satan and Wilson is the Savior on hold, you would see is not a smear or an attack but the simple truth.
*** Update ***
And, as if on cue, Rush Limbaugh:
“Rush’s final words at the end of the show (referring to the Press Conference scheduled by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) to happen shortly): “Chuck Shumer is Joe Wilson’s ‘handler’ in this agency plot to bring down the President.”
If you want to fight the narrative that Wilson is partisan and you want to keep insisting that partisanship is not an issue, then Wilson should not be appearing in news conferences that will be painted as nothing more than partisan exercises.
Schumer wrote the talking points himself on this one…