Woodward book: Post gets Scooped by NYT

Rick Moran has a short critique of the new Woodward book. I always suspect Woodward because I was working for Larry Casey, William's nephew, for a short time after the book and Larry swore stacks of bibles that Woodward was lying about the deathbed confession, as Moran repeats above.

I share Woodward's deep revulsion over Rumsfeld, and the Jay Garner anecdote shows that Rummy was not the only clueless dolt in the WH concerning the insurrection. And it looks like Bremer tried to get more troops at some point. But Garner had already been overruled on keeping the Iraqi soldiers mustered, and the hornets began exploding themselves and others very quickly. On the whole, colossal mismanagement and WH indifference appear to be the order of the day.

As usual, it's the tidbits that tantalize. Tenet briefing Rice in July over NSA intercepts that weren't, or couldn't be, translated because of the lack of Arabic language translators. Rumsfeld dissing Rice at every opportunity, and using his bureaucratic ham-fist to squelch opponents inside the Beltway, leading to fatally-flawed policies on the ground in Iraq. Andrew Card calling on Bush to fire Rumsfeld twice.

This is a cornucopia for the Dems just before elections this fall. Mark Foley's downfall may presage a real cascade of popular disgust with Republicans who are hypocritical on morals [Foley founded an anti-internet child predator initiative!] and incompetent on management issues. Especially foreign policy management issues. And there's more:

Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year.

And Kissinger is advising Bush Jr. on Iraq, another forked hoof in the mix! This would be more credible if the NSA intercept of the Al-Qaeda chief Al-Masri had not revealed that 4000 insurgent fighters had been killed, AQ recruitment was dwindling, and a related news item, buried by the MSM, has the Sunni tribal leaders eradicating foreign insurgents in western Iraq.

The MSM is utterly unreliable on most of what comes out of Iraq, period. And so is the Pentagon and the White House. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

It is evident that Woodward is apple-polishing for the left after they savaged him for not going along with the Plamegate Disinformation Scam last year, drawing blood and an apology to the Wash Post for not sharing his tiny info coup. He's slithering back to where he thrives---smack dab in the middle.

Last laugh is on the Post for plumping the Plamegate and dissing Woodward---it was the NYT that got the scoop. Leonard Downie Jr. must be unhappy, to say the least.