Last Word

This is the last thing I'm going to say about the Rove/Plame/Wilson/Niger/Iraq war affair.

The liberal blogs have been attacking me for saying Rove should get a medal. Even Bill O'Reilly said I'm a smart guy but wrong on this.

All right, let me repeat my position.

Joe Wilson (search) wrote a book about all this — which I read — and, believe it or not, it is quite revealing about the whole affair.

Here's what the book tells us.

One, Joe Wilson made his State Department bones by facing down Saddam (search) as the last American diplomat in Baghdad just as the Gulf War was starting in 1991.

Two, it was that work which got Wilson major kudos at State and put him to the head of the line to make ambassador.

Three, Joe Wilson's whole diplomat deal during the first Gulf War was that the U.S. could not, not, not go all the way to Baghdad because it would be a disaster for us in Arab countries.

Four, Joe Wilson carries that belief with him to this day. He always believed regime change was wrong — wrong in 1991 and wrong in 2003.

That's what you need to know about Joe Wilson. And his wife, the spy, Valerie Plame (search) certainly did know that about him.

So when she put him up for the job of going to Niger to check on Saddam's WMD, do you think she thought her husband would change his spots while he was away in Africa?

Doubt it. She knew he'd come back and take the position that nothing he found would justify war to overthrow Saddam.

Now my point is that the American people had a right to know who sent Joe Wilson.

Evidently, he thought so too because he maintained for the longest time that he was sent by Vice President Dick Cheney's (search) office — not admitting his wife had anything to do with it.

If the cover story for Wilson's trip is that Cheney sent him and Wilson's message of, "Don't go to war to overthrow Saddam," is ignored by Cheney and Bush and the American public is wondering why Cheney would send someone to check out Saddam's WMD and then ignore the advice, don't you think it would be important to know Cheney didn't send Wilson — that Wilson's wife sent him?

I do.

That's My Word.

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