Town of Wallkill — It took a while for someone to address the former U.S. ambassador with the Richard Gere looks and the wife whose name has become synonymous with allegations of treason."I'm sorry, but I've been waiting a long time to ask this," a woman said. "Mr. Ambassador, why is Robert Novak still walking around in the country?"
With that, Joe Wilson, one of the first to question President Bush's claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, stood up to talk to an audience who had come to discuss Social Security and Medicare.
He was stumping yesterday for Democratic congressional candidate John Hall, who is running against Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah. Kelly did not attend the event, held at the Town of Wallkill's Community Center.
Wilson lamented, jokingly, that he is known these days mostly as the husband of Valerie Plame, the covert CIA operative whose name was leaked to news columnist Robert Novak by then- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.The leak is largely believed to have been in retaliation for Wilson's op-ed article in the New York Times criticizing Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein had uranium for making nuclear bombs.
With Hall and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley by his side, the former ambassador to several African countries slammed those he believed really betrayed his wife and the country.
"When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled," Wilson said, making reference to an African proverb. "Novak is only a blade of grass in all this. There are bigger fish to fry." He named Armitage, Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove.
Wilson recommended that people read "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," a book that claims Plame was disrupting nuclear programs in Iraq, North Korea and Iran before her identity became known. "That's what Bob Novak, in his efforts to be a shill for the likes of Karl Rove, compromised," Wilson said.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/pressclip.php?view=3812
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