Monday, April 24, 2006
  Frum Fumes About Plame & Blame
I am trying to wrap my mind around the idea that revealing the name of Valerie Plame - an effectively retired midlevel CIA operative who had helped her husband into a career-enhancing mission - is the biggest security breach since the Rosenbergs; while meanwhile Mary McCarthy's alleged leak - which revealed to al Qaeda the whereabouts of some of this planet's most dangerous killers while plunging into crisis US relations with some of its closest Eastern European allies - is honorable whistle-blowing. - David Frum
 
Comments:
Gotta point there! Our government is getting scarier by the minute. Reminds me of the story of the fox minding the henhouse. What next?
 
Seems to me that quote is just another generalization. By pretending the the "left" is trying to make an absurd claim like McCarthy = Rosenberg, Frum seeks to negate the entire issue of whether it was wrong at all.

I would counter this argument with something I learned as a child: Two wrongs don't make a right.

Take care.

Sorry I posted this three times, I can't type today.
 
Please read more carefully, Rich. Frum isn't saying "the "left" is trying to make an absurd claim like McCarthy = Rosenberg." He says the left is treating the Plame "leak" as "the biggest security breach since the Rosenbergs."

And the point of Frum's comment is not who's wrong or right. It's the double standard that is obvious here.

The media and the Left want heads to roll over the release of the name of a person who was NOT a covert CIA agent, yet they pretend McCarthy is a hero who should be admired for her actions.
 
James,

It seems to me that finding "just another generalization" is Rich's way of facing veiwpoints critical of his. Either that, or he likes to use "unfocused derision" as the label for whatever focused point is being made that is contrary to his view point.

His use of the phrase "two wrongs don't make a right" is puzzling since it doesn't apply to the point at hand.

The Valerie Plume scandal was a non event. She wasn't a covert CIA agent, so she wasn't outed. No wrong doing there.

The Mary McCarthy case is blatantly criminal. A CIA agent with access to classified information regarding our nation's prosecution of the war against terrorist Islamo-Fascists who divulges it to outside sources, the press, has violated the agreement she signed before she was read in to the classified information program. And is aware of the punishment that go along with that violation.

So, I see one wrong plus one non-issue. Just how does that fit into the two wrongs don't make a right formula Rich?
 
Yo, boys.

I'm going to try this one more time:

Any time you refer to "The Left." Or say things like "The left thinks that..." then you are immediately failing to make any point at all. If you say "A spokesman from the ACLU said:" and then QUOTE him, then you are inviting discussion.

I guess what I'm asking is: WHO is stating that the Plame thing is the "biggest security breach since the Rosenbers?" It's not "The Left," or at least not "The Left" of which I represent a small sliver in a huge spectrum of opinion.

From the quote, I can't tell if Frum thinks that the leak was: 1) bad on it's own, 2) relatively better than the Rosenberg affair, 3) dandy.

Anyway: I hope it's as nice out where you are as it is in New York today. Happy Spring!
 
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