How low can our presstitutes go?

[Neecy]

I'm reading The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich - it's excellent - and a passage about former Pentagon flack Torie Clarke caught my eye.

Clarke is often a guest of Wolf Blitzer and he treats her like a military expert, asking her solemn questions about complex military subjects. If she's paired with someone who doesn't unquestionably follow the White House or Pentagon line she treats them in the irritable manner of Captain Cook addressing an unruly native.

What qualifies her to offer her expertise on military issues? Not much, according to Rich.

"The mastermind of the Pentagon media operation, the embed program included, was Torie Clarke, a PR star whose resume included a stint at the National Cable Television Association, where she had accomplished the seemingly mission impossible of ameliorating that industry's villainous image as a poster child for heinous customer service. Little in her Pentagon image portfolio was left to chance; a production designer for Disney, MGM, Good Morning America and the illusionist David Blaine..."

Hey, I saw Top Gun on DVD a few years ago - can I be a Blitzer guest and offer up my weighty opinions on all things military?

Wikipedia adds a few other nuggest about Clarke's career, most of it dishonorable.

It is reported that Clarke was fired from her position due to the dramatization of Private Jessica Lynch's rescue from Iraq. "With media pressure mounting at the Pentagon for some truthful answers, just two weeks later Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke - best known for her Captain Kangaroo suits - resigned 'for personal reasons,' effective immediately".

During Clarke's term as the General Manager of Hill & Knowlton's Washington, DC office, the infamous "Nurse Nayirah" scandal took place during the run up to the first Gulf War in late 1990, in which her public relations firm produced a false 15 year old witness to the United Nations who fabricated atrocities committed by Iraq towards Kuwaiti children. It is believed that this emotional but fabricated testimony had a large part in shaping public opinion for the war.

In a sidenote that would be screamingly funny if it weren't so achingly descriptive of the blatant falsehoods of the last seven years, Clarke has written a book entitled Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game.

Remember Clarke's "credentials" the next time she pops off on something more weighty than flower placement on the set of Good Morning America or creating the false image of a Rambo-like Lynch taking out the Iraqi Army. Shame on Blitzer (or Matthews, who has also had her on occasionally) for showcasing this walking psy-ops lunatic.

[TomInTib]

1. I cannot stand that smug *itch.

Like C Rice, she is a syncophantic whore.

Kept around and trotted out whenever convenient.