Say It Ain't So, Joe!

Confession time: I've tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to follow the most recent twists and turns in the Ambassador Joe Wilson story.

Did his wife, the CIA operative notoriously outed by columnist Robert Novak, recommend him for the trip to Niger, where he found that Iraq had not purchased uranium? (Does that matter much, other than to show that Wilson either lied about/was ignorant of part of his story?) Backhanded by the Senate Intel Committee, the Wash Post, and others, Wilson still has his supporters. I find myself leaning to the position that Wilson, his supporters, and his detractors are all lying.

Beyond the not-insignificant fact that virtually all of the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's weapons programs and capabilities have been disproven, only two things are certain: None of this new stuff is going to help jumpstart the investigation into who in the Bush administration coughed up Mrs. Wilson, a.k.a. Valerie Plame, to Novak; this is an inquiry that's moving along at a speed rivaled only by O.J.'s hunt for the real killer.

And the Salon cruise, which prominently features Wilson along with such dinghy-level stars as former Texas Gov. Ann "Hiccup" Richards and litigation-prone Clintonista Sid "Vicious" Blumenthal, will be about as much fun as watching The Boatniks.