Or, Just Like Hunting for Quayle With Dick Cheney ...
How do you spell "conflict of interest"?
What they wanted to do was to get that "surge" going.
But, as noted in "Meet The New Baghdad Bob," William Kristol WAS Vice President Dan "Potatoe" Quayle's Chief of Staff for Bush I, before he sold himself to Rupert Murdoch to co-found The Weekly Standard, become a regular founding Faux Nooz face, and to co-found and chair the Partnership for A New American Century, all within 18 months starting September 17, 1995.
So, naturally, as the coordinated attack on American Public Opinion began on Labor Day with Bush's "surprise" visit to Iraq (see Dan Froomkin's superior "Kabuki at Camp Cupcake" which is nearly as good as its title, which is superb), so, too, the print media were prepared.
And, on the morning of Tuesday after Labor Day, September 4, they struck. The Weekly Standard, and the Wall Street Journal, SOON to be run -- if notso already -- by Rupert Murdoch. One! Two! Jab and hook: WSJ = How GREAT is the Surge, Any-yay!(sic) TWS = Attack critics, specifically GAO report.
Here's a taste:
The Wall Street Journal:
The Tide Is Turning in Iraq
By KIMBERLY KAGAN
September 4, 2007; Page A17
The initial concept of the "surge" strategy in Iraq was to secure Baghdad and its immediate environs, which is why its proper name was the "Baghdad Security Plan." But as President Bush pointed out during his surprise trip to Iraq, operations and events on the ground are already showing successes well beyond Baghdad in Anbar, Diyala and Salahaddin provinces -- formerly al Qaeda strongholds and hotbeds of the Sunni insurgency....
Ms. Kagan is an affiliate of Harvard's John M. Olin Institute of Strategic Studies and the president of the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.
And, The Weekly Standard:
What's Wrong with the GAO Report
Measuring failure--or the failures of measuring.
by Frederick W. Kagan
09/04/2007 3:37:00 PM
At first glance--as those who leaked it last week saw--the Government Accountability Office's report on Iraq, released today, paints a dark view of progress and prospects in Iraq. Its subtitle offers the most attractive thesis to opponents of the current strategy: "Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks." Its opening paragraph dourly states that "the Iraqi government met 3, partially met 4, and did not meet 11 of its 18 benchmarks." Surely its release marks a grim moment for the Bush administration's efforts to sustain their approach in the war. Or perhaps not.
The GAO report reflects everything that has been wrong with the discussion about Iraq since the end of 2006. Through no fault of the GAO's, the organization was sent on a fool's errand by Congress....
Kagan? KAGAN? Gee. I wonder if ...
Bingo. From the History News Network:
Historians in the News
Kimberly Kagan: Wife of Frederick Kagan to monitor plan her husband devised
Source: HNN Staff (3-14-07)
Kimberly Kagan, Yale Ph.D., has been appointed by the Weekly Standard to provide readers with a fortnightly progress report on "the surge."
... But she is not exactly a disinterested observer, as blogger Andrew Sullivan has complained:
I vouched for Kimberly Kagan's academic credentials in linking to her assessment of the progress of the "surge" for the Weekly Standard. I should have disclosed that Kagan is the wife of Frederick Kagan, the principal author of the surge; and his brother is Bob Kagan, another pro-surge advocate and editor at the Weekly Standard, and they're both sons of Donald Kagan, who is also a neoconservative intellectual. More to the point: Kimberly Kagan is listed as one of the participants in her husband's research team that came up with the surge in the first place. So when the Weekly Standard decided to compile a regular report on the surge's progress, they picked the wife of the main author and one of the plan's original architects. And they never disclosed these relevant facts. So allow me.
Well, don't that beat all!
(Of course, with the WSJ, a LEGITIMATE news outlet would note the conflict of interest involved and make a correction.)
Must be leftover Quayle Political Mojo.
Courage.