I'm battling my hero, Bob Somerby about Joe Wilson.

[trumad]

Email battle that is.... I pimp Bob as much as anyone here on DU because I truly think he's the best on the web. Bob tries hard to be non-partisan regarding his critique of the press and I back him 100 percent on his non-partisanship... With that said, I believe he's wrong about Joe Wilson.

The last couple of weeks Bob has been skewering Wilson. He seems to have bought into the fact that Wilson is full of shit. A couple of pages ago he seemed to side with the 3 republicans and Sue Schmidt that Wilson was parsing the truth about his wife getting him the Niger job.

Today he critiques Wilson regarding the famous 16 words.

Like I said, I think he's been flat wrong about this and I haven't felt shy in telling him.

Here's todays piece: http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071904.shtml

Here's the piece a couple of days ago:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071204.shtml

In a nutshell... Bob emailed me telling me that Joe Wilson is bad news for us Libs..... Like I said, I think he's wrong.

[Stephanie]

1. Joseph Wilson is doing what any man would do whose wife was attacked.

I don't need to parse his statements for minor discrepancies. The fact is he publically called the president a liar, the WH attacked his wife, and now he is relentless in exposing who did it. That's all I need to know about Joe Wilson.

[redqueen]

2. I haven't been able to stomach reading it lately

At least not the whole thing. *sigh*

[Hoping4Change]

3. He was interviewed on one of the Sunday morning news shows.

He refuted all charges and is asking the Committee that questionned his remarks to re-investigate their findings. There are people he says who back up his statements.

He is being smeared. What I found interesting that I didn't know that he was at one time a Reg Repug. Anyway nothing detracts form the point that the wife and her covert operation was outed.

[pmbryant]

4. Could you post what you wrote to him?

I've been reading Daily Howler for quite a while and have great respect for Somerby's work, so I have been taking his comments about Wilson very seriously. (And I'm not extremely familiar with all the intricate details of this case.)

Could you elaborate here on what specific points you disagree with Somerby about Wilson?

Thanks,
Peter

[trumad]

5. I wrote this to him regarding his comments on Wilson in today's Howler...

It's a bit harsh:

What Bob??? No mention of Ms. Plame and her er supposed push to get her husband hired for the Niger trip... Or are you shying away from that criticism? Then again, you could continue to side with the 3 Republicans on the panel who think that it was Plame herself that pushed for that Gig for Dear old Joe. OR you could mention on your site the other side of the story and state that 3 Democrats on the panel and CIA personnel disagree with the assessment of the 3 republicans on the panel.

Otherwise you and Safliar will continue to be bed buddies regarding this issue.
Safire today:
"Contrary to his indignant claim that "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter" of selecting him for the African trip, the Senate published testimony that his C.I.A. wife had "offered up his name" and printed her memo to her boss that "my husband has good relations" with Niger officials and "lots of French contacts." Further destroying his credibility, Wilson now insists this strong pitch did not constitute a recommendation."
BTW: Did I tell you that you are one of my true hero's on the web and I pimp you almost daily on the forum called Democratic Underground? I'm also the guy who sent you my glowing review and thanks for putting me on to the movie "In America".... So don't think I don't love you Bob.... I just disagree with you on this one.

Bob
__________________________________________________________________

This is what he wrote me the other day:
Somerby:
"But other parts of Novak's column are strong. Wilson persistently overstated
all sorts of things, including in his long on-line interview with Josh,
where he ridiculed the very idea that his wife was involved in his going on
the trip. The dude is bad news--he has overstated almost everything at every
poiint of the case. But the press corps chased around after his exciting
adventure story, ignoring much stronger examples of pre-war deception in the
process. The tubes were a much clearer (and more influential) case of
deception than the 16 words."


As you can see he's pretty adamant that Wilson is full of it... I think Bob's dead wrong.

[pmbryant]

6. Thanks

Good points all around.

--Peter