Smearing Plame

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The right will stop at nothing to smear whomever it deems a threat to its grip on power. The main targets of the right-wing smear machine are often leading political figures, such as Obama, but the machine also targets those who speak the truth to right-wing power, who expose the lies and deceptions of the right, of the Republican Party, of Bush -- such as Valerie Plame.

In her testimony before the House Government and Oversight Committee, Plame stated that she was in fact, and contrary to partisan right-wing claims, covert at the time her identity was made public by conservative pundit Robert Novak. And if she was in fact covert when outed, then we come back to the rather significant matter of who knew what and when, of whether there was a concerted and coordinated plot to out Plame and where such a plot originated.

And this is why the right-wing smear machine is attacking Plame's claims that she was covert and that she did not recommend that her husband, Joseph Wilson, be sent to Niger. On Fox News today, Brit Hume even went so far as to allege that Plame lied under oath. Having already argued that she was not covert, he is now arguing that she did send her husband to Niger. It's just more of the same from the right.

You can find the video of Hume's smear at Think Progress.