ROVE-ing Mad

When Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, the Republican Party wanted to string him up by his entrails. Now that Deep Throat has been exposed, many Republicans have called Mark Felt a traitor and an unethical S.O.B. Yet, Karl Rove knowingly exposed a CIA operative to the media -- which explicitly violates federal law -- and many of these same Republicans are slapping him on the back, saying "Way to go, Karl!"

As Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times,

"What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern...

"But what we're getting, instead, is yet another impressive demonstration that these days, truth is political. One after another, prominent Republicans and conservative pundits have declared their allegiance to the party line. They haven't just gone along with the diversionary tactics, like the irrelevant questions about whether Mr. Rove used Valerie Wilson's name in identifying her (Robert Novak later identified her by her maiden name, Valerie Plame), or the false, easily refuted claim that Mr. Wilson lied about who sent him to Niger. They're now a chorus, praising Mr. Rove as a patriotic whistle-blower."

But it's just not the Republicans. If the shoe had been on the other foot, I'm certain many Democrats would be singing the same chorus.

Just another fine example of partisan politics!