Sad case of a former liberal

Liberals, leftists & progressives have long since concluded that WaPo columnist Richard Cohen is a concern troll, a person who's allegedly from the left, but who takes positions that would discredit lefty viewpoints on the issues if, of course, people thought Cohen was truly a member of the left. His latest attempt to appear to be a member of the left is his airy dismissal of the Valerie Plame/Niger/Yellowcake Uranium case wherein Iraq was alleged by the Bush Administration to be trying to acquire uranium from Niger to fashion into atomic bombs. There were always a great many questions about the case and Ambassador (Retired) Joseph Wilson's NY Times op-ed on the case confirmed a lot of suspicions about it. The current court case is about the subsequent outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent who was working on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) issues.

The really sad aspect of Cohen's talking on the issue is his amazing lack of familiarity with the case. One would think that a pundit, someone who's paid to have opinions on the issues, would be completely familiar with the details. Considering that the case dates from mid-2003 and that it's an important case (The Bush Administration couldn't credibly claim to be misled by Ahmed Chalabi because Chalabi had nothing to do with the case.) one would think Cohen wouldn't make an absolute howler of a mistake like this:

"Joe Wilson had, in his New York Times op-ed piece, misrepresented the genesis of his trip to Africa. It was not Vice President Cheney who sent him, it was the CIA, and possibly his own wife."

Wilson made no such claim. Wilson had made it quite clear at the time that it was "agency officials" from the CIA who requested he make the trip. He was specifically asked about whether Cheney or Cheney's office had anything to do with the trip and Wilson simply couldn't say. He had his suspicions of course, but no first-hand knowledge.

Obviously, Cohen needs to spend less time scarfing down cocktail weenies at the fashionable parties and more time doing research. He needs less time to goof off and needs to put in more hours to do his job!