If you choose to stand on the moral high ground, prepare to be struck down by lightning especially if you are a shameless right-wing hypocrite.
Bill Bennett, one of the right-wing’s moral embarrassments and already fried by a couple of lightning bolts himself, has decided that we on the left aren’t outraged enough by the recent leak of the revelations of secret CIA prisons.
Yes – that Bill Bennett – author of The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories who was outed as a problem gambler in 2003 and who, in September, 2005, stated that you could reduce the crime rate if you aborted all black babies.
In the National Review, Bennett writes:
Item: Dana Priest of the Washington Post writes a front-page story on Wednesday headlined, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons. Pay close attention to the second sentence of the story: “The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.”
“Secret”! “Covert”! So after the press and the Left make a meal of the allegation that people in the White House might have leaked the name of a covert operative, and after we find out that Plame was indeed not a covert operative under the law, the Washington Post — by its own admission — can print classified information that involves covert CIA activity?
This is an outrage.
Damn straight it’s an outrage, but Bennett aims his outrage at the left for opposing the leak of CIA covert agent (and she was a covert agent at the time, Bennett) Valerie Plame’s name in 2003 and not raising an equal stink about this leak about the secret prisons.
Pure, right-wing hypocrisy.
What Bennett and so many right-wing apologists fail to understand is that the Bush administration is breaking international laws by holding detainees in those secret prisons, but we all know how much regard Republicans have for the rule of law.
The real outrage is that people like Bennett, who stand on their holier-than-thou podiums and scream to their drooling crowds, don’t understand the concept of treating people like human beings. They placed Valerie Plame in serious jeopardy and they’re treating detainees like non-persons. Even animals have more rights.
Save your faux outrage, Bennett. If we on the left want lessons about morals, you’re one of the last people we would ever turn to. Why don’t you write an article defying Bush and Cheney’s torture policies and secret hellholes? Maybe then, we’ll listen. Until then, you’re just another shill trying to score political points off your dear leader’s absolute failure to be a human being with a conscience. That’s “conscience”, Bennett. Look it up in the dictionary. It’s somewhere between “compassionate” and “conservative”.