Rearing His Head
I was busy yesterday and didn’t get a chance to follow up, but I wondered about the item in Robert Novak’s column yesterday in which he claimed that the Kerry campaign discarded Wilson after the SSCI report claimed Wilson’s statements had no basis in fact. I had no recollection of that happening, particularly since the bipartisan SSCI report said no such thing — that “no basis in fact” statement came from the “additional views” of partisan tools Orrin Hatch, Pat Roberts and Kit Bond. (It’s quite telling that the committee couldn’t even get all the republicans to sign on to that little smear.)
Robert Parry gets to the bottom of this and lo and behold, it all comes back to our favorite little GOP man-ho, JD Guckert:
The other part of Novak’s attack on Wilson – about his supposed repudiation by Sen. John Kerry’s Democratic campaign – can be traced back to a story by Talon News’ former White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert.
On July 27, 2004, just over a year ago, a Talon News story under Gannon’s byline reported that Wilson “has apparently been jettisoned from the Kerry campaign.” The article based its assumption on the fact that “all traces” of Wilson “had disappeared from the Kerry Web site.”
The Talon News article reported that “Wilson had appeared on a Web site www.restorehonesty.com where he restated his criticism of the Bush administration. The link now goes directly to the main page of www.johnkerry.com and no reference to Wilson can be found on the entire site.”
A Web Redesign
But Peter Daou, who headed the Kerry campaign’s online rapid response, said the disappearance of Wilson’s link – along with many other Web pages – resulted from a redesign of Kerry’s Web site at the start of the general election campaign, not a repudiation of Wilson.
“I wasn’t aware of any directive from senior Kerry staff to ‘discard’ Joe Wilson or do anything to Joe Wilson for that matter,” said Daou, who now publishes the “Daou Report” at Salon.com. “It just got lost in the redesign of the Web site, as did dozens and dozens of other pages.”
I don’t want to hear any more speculation that Robert Novak has anything but the highest journalistic standards. Nobody has more credibility than the Bulldog.
The Talon article was scrubbed of course. But the freepers kept a copy on their site. Perhaps old Bob hangs out there — many Republican whores do. Here it is in its entirety:
Kerry Dumps Joe Wilson From Campaign Team
Talon News ^ | 7/27/2004 | Jeff GannonPosted on 07/27/2004 7:22:20 AM PDT by ConservativeMajority
WASHINGTON (Talon News) — Last week, the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) very publicly distanced itself from former National Security Advisor Samuel “Sandy” Berger after it became known that Berger was under investigation for removing highly classified documents from the National Archives.
Talon News reported that Kerry’s anti-terror policy was removed from the candidate’s web site immediately following Berger’s dismissal as a campaign advisor. But in the last few days, another advisor has apparently been jettisoned from the Kerry campaign. All traces of former Ambassador Joe Wilson, the central figure in the controversy of faulty intelligence about Iraq and uranium has disappeared from the Kerry web site. Wilson had appeared on a web site www.restorehonesty.com where he restated his criticism of the Bush administration. The link now goes directly to the main page of www.johnkerry.com and no reference to Wilson can be found on the entire site.
Wilson was discredited by a Senate Intelligence Committee report that contradicted Wilson’s public statements about how he was selected for a sensitive mission to Niger in 2002 and the results of his report about Saddam Hussein’s attempt to purchase uranium in Africa. Wilson represented his investigation as proof that President Bush misled the United States in making the case for the invasion of Iraq. An investigation into British intelligence confirms that Bush’s claim was “well founded.”
It is likely that Kerry’s handlers took advantage of the Berger affair to quietly break official contact with someone who has proved to be something of a loose cannon. The ambassador was known for his vitriolic rhetoric against members of the Bush administration, particularly political advisor Karl Rove. Last year he suggested that Rove be “frog-marched from the White House in handcuffs,” over the alleged leak of his wife’s identity.
The Kerry campaign did not respond to a Talon News inquiry about Wilson’s departure.
Copyright © 2004 Talon News — All rights reserved.
This really is worth some follow-up with the mainstream press, I think. All things being equal, Novak should be joining Dan Rather for a geriatric fuck-up cruise. It’s amazing he’s skated thus far.
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