Reply #6: Joe Conason interviews Joe Wilson [View All]

[LiviaOlivia]

May 3, 2004
Salon.com

"It isn't a partisan issue. It's a truth issue."--Joe Wilson


Bold=Conason
Italics=Wilson

~snip~

In this memoir, you give us a broad picture of your life and your upbringing. One of the things that's very clear is that you're not exactly a left-wing pinko. Former Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker, who was your boss in the Reagan State Department, apparently was kind of shocked that you were suddenly being portrayed as a left-winger.

As I recall in the book, I once had a little discussion about this with Tony Blankley . He told me that you become a caricature in these sorts of debates -- and that's clearly what they've tried to do. I grew up in an old California family where politics, and especially state politics, were the staff of life around our table. We had an uncle who was mayor of San Francisco and later governor of California. We had another uncle who had been a congressman.

~snip~

In 2000, you at first supported George W. Bush.

I contributed to his campaign, which is different. In the primary season, I supported him as the candidate who best represented those core Republican values. Now that didn't mean I was going to vote for him. In fact, I declined an opportunity to sign a letter supporting him from former ambassadors for Bush. I always sort of thought I would vote for Al Gore, whom I had known since I was a congressional fellow. But I still believe that the campaign and the platform that was being advanced by Bush were more in our interest than what was being advanced by John McCain.

But at a certain point, you became disgusted with the Bush campaign.

After they lost New Hampshire and decided that their tactic would be to move to the hard right. And then they ran this push-poll campaign denigrating McCain's service to the country, his wife's medical problems and mischaracterizing their adoption of a child -- I believe from South Asia. Pushing that racist button was beyond the pale --

~snip~

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/03/wilson/print.html