Krugman covers the O'Neill story

[Don Claybrook]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/13/opinion/13KRUG.html

...
The point is that the credentials of the critics just keep getting better. How can Howard Dean's assertion that the capture of Saddam hasn't made us safer be dismissed as bizarre, when a report published by the Army War College says that the war in Iraq was a "detour" that undermined the fight against terror? How can charges by Wesley Clark and others that the administration was looking for an excuse to invade Iraq be dismissed as paranoid in the light of Mr. O'Neill's revelations?

So far administration officials have attacked Mr. O'Neill's character but haven't refuted any of his facts. They have, however, already opened an investigation into how a picture of a possibly classified document appeared during Mr. O'Neill's TV interview. This alacrity stands in sharp contrast with their evident lack of concern when a senior administration official, still unknown, blew the cover of a C.I.A. operative because her husband had revealed some politically inconvenient facts.

Some will say that none of this matters because Saddam is in custody, and the economy is growing. Even in the short run, however, these successes may not be all they're cracked up to be. More Americans were killed and wounded in the four weeks after Saddam's capture than in the four weeks before. The drop in the unemployment rate since its peak last summer doesn't reflect a greater availability of jobs, but rather a decline in the share of the population that is even looking for work.

More important, having a few months of good news doesn't excuse a consistent pattern of dishonest, irresponsible leadership. And that pattern keeps getting harder to deny.

[rumguy]

1. A great column, as usual...

[sonias]

2. he he he give 'em hell Paul (Krugman)

So many have been saying that it would have to be a repuke that would create enough stink to take this dictator down, because the dems didn't have the backbone or soap box to do it.

Middle America will have to do a little thinking now. And it used to be so easy to let the repukes do your thinking for you. Now what? It's so confusing, which repuke is telling the truth? Well we can turn to FauxNews of course because they will have sorted it out right. FauxNews of course is playing up the O'Neil is a traitor being investigated for leaking secret information. Next thing you know the bushies are gonna declare O'Neil an enemy combatant and shut him up for good.

I do love Paul Krugman.

Sonia