Topic: Newsmax
NewsMax has resorted to some decidedly lame tactics to defend White House senior adviser Karl Rove against revelations of his role in the Valerie Plame affair.
A July 11 article rehashes a January Washington Post op-ed by Victoria Toensing, a former deputy attorney general, who claimed that the leak of Plame's name as a CIA operative that the facts of the case as of January "do not support evidence of criminal conduct." NewsMax fails to note that Toensing has a personal interest in the case; she's a buddy of Robert Novak, who originally released Plame's CIA connection in a 2003 column.
A July 12 article quickly jumped to NewsMax's defense of last resort -- dragging in the Clintons. Yes, NewsMax compared Plame's outing, "a revelation, by the way, that did nothing to damage her career as a desk-bound analyst, let alone endanger her life," to questionable accusations that Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick, which it claimed falls under the catetory of "truly serious allegations of genuine criminality." In NewsMax's view, anything the Clintons have done is, de facto, much worse than any misdeed by conservatives.
It's a bad sign for conservatives when NewsMax plays the Clinton-equivocation card this soon.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:38 PM EDT
