[Dialogue] The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 by TruthDig <http://www.truthdig.com>  

The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington 

by Molly Ivins

 

Of course I am above sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. So serious a servant of
the public interest am I, I can fogey with the best: On my better days, I
make David Broder look like Page Six. 

I don't care what anyone smoked 20 years ago, I approve of those who boogie
till they puke, and I don't care who anyone in politics is screwing in
private, as long as they're not screwing the public. 

On other hand, if you expect me to pass up a scandal involving poker,
hookers, and the Watergate building with crooked defense contractors and the
No. 3 guy at the CIA, named Dusty Foggo (Dusty Foggo?! Be still my heart),
you expect too much. Any journalist who claims Hookergate is not a
legitimate scandal is dead-has been for some time and needs to be unplugged.
In addition to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, Hookergate is rife with
public-interest questions, misfeasance, malfeasance and non-feasance, and
many splendid moral points for the children. Recommended for Sunday school
use, grades seven and above. 

But for starters, let us consider the unenviable record of Porter Goss at
the CIA. From the beginning of his tenure, Goss has been criticized for
politicizing the agency. He brought a bunch of political hacks with him for
staff, one of whom turns out to be the poker player called "Nine Fingers."
And in the end, he was probably fired for not having politicized the agency
sufficiently. 

What is the point of politicizing an intelligence agency? So the CIA
officials would get a report from some agent in Iraq saying, "Looks bad."
The first thing they'd ask was, "Is this agent a Republican or a Democrat?" 

Maybe there really are conservatives who believe everything in Iraq is
hunky-dory and there's a giant media conspiracy to hide the joyous tidings.
But as you may recall, the ever-nimble minds at Donny Rumsfeld's shop have
already tried paying public relations people to invent good news about Iraq
and then plant it in newspapers there-it didn't work. In fact, it was so
stupid it was humiliating. Fortunately, the Pentagon was once again able to
investigate itself and determine it had done nothing illegal. 

So now they're turning the CIA over to a general who not only ran the
warrantless wiretap program but still can't figure out that it's
unconstitutional. Why do I get the feeling this is W. and Karl again
flipping the finger at some grown-up they don't like? 

Gen. Michael Hayden had mixed reviews as director of the National Security
Agency-he's evidently not a good manager, which makes him a perfect Bushie.
But is he straightforward enough to have admitted that some warrantless
spying has been done for political reasons? None of the usual Washington
insiders seems to have a bead on this. Hayden would theoretically report to
John Negroponte, Bush's supposed intelligence czar. Negroponte is widely
considered worthless. His major achievement so far seems to be
organizational charts and buying furniture. 

You know me, no conspiracy theories here, but the Bush administration, which
doesn't seem to be able to run much, set out to retool the CIA after 9/11
and the Iraq war. Problem is, everything that worked at the CIA-that it
warned about 9/11 and said the Iraq war was a bad idea-was on the hit list.
The Bushies wanted to eliminate the people who were right and promote those
who were wrong. This is no way to shape up an intelligence agency, not to
mention the White House spit fit over Joe Wilson's wife. 

Next, we need to contemplate sincere, old-fashioned, non-ideological greed,
theft, and bribery. In the beginning, there was only Duke Cunningham, the
high-living, fun-loving super-patriot congressman from San Diego. His yacht
was called The Duke-Stir, and he had nice taste in 19th century French
commodes. While we all are happy to see our elected representatives enjoying
themselves in Washington, that's real people's money. Actually, the yacht
and commode were paid for by defense contractor Brent Wilkes (keep an eye on
that player). It was people's money that paid for the defense contracts
Wilkes allegedly bribed public officials into landing for his clients. 

The former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Clark
Kent Ervin-that would be the DHS equivalent of a police department's
internal affairs chief-tried to blow the whistle on shady contracts at DHS
and instead was thrown overboard himself. Folks, we'll never get government
straightened out again if we don't keep the IGs strong and independent. 

If the Bush administration continues to fall apart at this clip, I think
we'll be grateful for incompetence as an excuse. 

Molly Ivins's latest book is "Who Let the Dogs In?
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400062853/commondreams-20/ref=nosim
> " 

C 2006 TruthDig.com, LLC

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