For Byron York, Competent Public Service = Partisan Democrat

by emptywheel

Remember this Robert Novak column? He wrote it after some Bush Administration thugs got caught lying us into war. In an attempt to distract attention from their own culpability, they leaked a whole range of information, including the shocking news that someone with decades of public service, to both Republican and Democratic Presidents, was a partisan Democrat.

And how about this Robert Novak column? The architects of the imperial presidency got worried that appointing someone with a clear history of public service as counter-terrorism chief would endanger their pet theories that rationalized domestic spying and torture (unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way). So they leaked the smear that the appointee was a partisan Democrat.

Every time they need to cover-up their lawbreaking and abuse of power, it seems, they get some hack to scream, "Partisan Democrat! Partisan Democrat!"

Apparently, Byron York is the go-to hack on such smears these days. There he is, screaming Partisan Democrat!" in an attempt to explain why Pat Roberts will renege on his promises to release Phase II of the SSCI Report.

Now, as Novak once admitted about Joe Wilson, Byron York admits that Eric Rosenbach is eminently qualified to serve as a staffer on the SSCI investigating prewar intelligence claims.

There is no doubt that Rosenbach is highly qualified to work for the committee; Buttry points out that he is a former Fulbright scholar and Army intelligence-company commander who has studied at Harvard and Georgetown Law School.

The problem, for York, is that Rosenbach, who volunteered on the Kerry campaign, now works for Chuck Hagel, of whom an unnamed Hill Republican complains:

Republican lawmakers have lost effective control because two of their own, Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine, sometimes side with Democrats.

To prove his "case" about the partisan threat at the core of the SSCI, York trots out the names of a bunch of "Democrats" with whom Rosenbach has been associated: Rand Beers,

[Richard] Clarke, the White House counterterrorism official-turned-Bush-critic, and also with, among others, former Clinton White House official Roger Cressey, former Clinton White House official Steven Simon, former Clinton White House official William Wechsler, and former Clinton White House official Lee Wolosky.

Of course, Clarke, Cressey, and Wolosky, at least, are also former Bush White House officials, and Simon is now at that hotbed of liberalism, the RAND Corporation.

Geez Byron, even Novak had the decency to admit Wilson had served Poppy Bush, as well as Clinton. Is it that you're just willfully dumb? Or is it you don't want to explain that these are all men who are competent. Not just competent, but some of the most experienced hands at fighting terrorism in the country. And being competent, when they saw the rank incompetence of the Bush Administration, they bailed.

Most partisans would be thrilled to have a staffer with ties to such competent people working for their side. But now that Byron has decided "competent" is a synonym for "Partisan Democrat," he'd rather stick with the partisan but incompetent hacks who'll cooperate in Pat Roberts' whitewash of an intelligence investigation.

Comments

[Kagro X]

I see.

There are only two positions a "qualified" intelligence staffer can have held over the past few years in order to remain untainted: 1) Agree with the Bush administration, or; 2) Sit on your hands and say nothing, even as the most spectacular failure of intelligence and analysis in the history of the world unfolds before your very eyes.

Sounds great! I'll take two of 'em!

[Mimikatz]

Just beginning Ron Susskind's book, "The One Percent Doctrine", about the formulation of our response to 9/11. It is good. He got a lot of inside info from people he calls "the invisibles", the opposite of Arkin's revolving door resume padders. These are devoted public servants, the people who are really competent and expert, who formulate the policies and responses, who toil long, long days for months (now years) on end, and, because they are competent, are kept on from Admin to Admin. The very people York trashes, evidently in favor of the Heritage-alum, resume-padding, incompetent partisan hacks just stopping by for a foothold before they move to a more lucrative gig.

[Mimikatz]

Kevin Drum makes several good points in dismantling all the excuses why a phased withdrawal from Iraq is wrong, but I particualrly liked this:

Because it would destroy our standing in the world? This is a fatuous argument. Staying in Iraq is doing far more damage to our standing in the world than a careful withdrawal ever would. Withdrawing from Vietnam didn't destroy America's standing in the world, withdrawing from Algeria didn't destroy France's standing in the world, and withdrawing from Lebanon didn't destroy Israel's standing in the world. It was staying too long that did the damage.

If the only way to win a war against Islamic jihadism is by invading and occuping Muslim countries, we're going to lose. Luckily, it's not the way to win. It's time to acknowledge this reality and demand that the Bush administration stop posturing and instead pursue a genuine, long-term winning strategy for the broader war we're fighting. An open-ended commitment to occupying Iraq isn't part of that.

Josh Marshall has more on how the Dems could improve their tone on this issue and stop looking weak.

[Paul Lyon]

Hm... I wonder what York would do if he was consistently labelled a ``partisan Republican''. Maybe he should look in the mirror before writing this sort of rubbish? Anyway, on the evidence you present EW, ``malodorous aggregaation of excrement'' would be a better description of Mr. Byron York.

[RossK]

I think everything Mr. York writes is dumb. Furthermore, everything he writes is clearly written willfully.

Ergo, he must be willfully dumb, at least when one is utilizing partisan Republican logic.

.

[teacherken]

Paul -- York insists that he is NOT a Republican, that he has never participated in a campaign -- he may also claim that he hasn't given any money to a candidate, but my memory is not clear on that. He was talking with Simon Rosenberg at George Washington U after Markos and Jerome had been on stage with Simon for a Crashing the Gate event the day they kicked off the book tour. Byron acknowledges that he is a convservative, but insists he is not a partisan.

Take it for whatever you think it is worth.

[Pete]

Asking the Republicans to investigate the Bush administration (Phase II) is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse. A Republican "disadvantage" during Phase II would actually be a good thing. But it is not going to happen. Pat Roberts is a political hack who will make sure that there are no damaging revelations.