Dogs yap at Woodward's heels

The second-string B-List reporters continue to harass Bob Woodward for regarding the Plame “Affair” for what it is, a trumped-up tempest-in-a-teapot, until events conspired to require him to go public on the simple fact that he knew Plame was Wilson’s wife and formerly a covert CIA agent.

The latest bow-wow journalist to attack Woodward is LATimes grifter Howard Fineman who called the WaPo a “court stenographer.”

Of course, Woodward is getting history at first draft from a privileged position, which drives the ink-stained squad bananas [although with them it is only a short putt!] and blinds them to the real service that he performed with Plan of Attack and other books hot off the Camp David working group meetings.

If Woodward were not there, no one would be there for the Fourth Estate, certainly not a certified liberal like Fineman, recording Tenet’s famous “slam dunk” assertion on WMD.

But the major problem hacks like David Broder and Fineman have with Woodward lies in his conservative views, rooted in strong Midwestern values, that he brings to his projects. Views which reporters at the Exempt Media must hide if they wish to retain their inkpots full in outlets like the NYT, WaPo, and LAT. Even a relatively balanced POV like the Moderate Voice overlooks the heart of the matter.

The key to the whole affair is that Woodward knows Plamegate is a scam, and he had the liberty first to get the intelligence on Plame and then make the judgment that this is another snipe hunt designed to sell papers and hurt Bush.

He is a man of integrity and is being pilloried by the ink-stained streetwalkers for standing by his own convictions.

He doesn’t have to play the phony Beltway games they do and the B-List reporters hate him for it.