I honestly think he has. He has now become involved in the recent controversy involving the leaking of the name of CIA analyst and former covert operative Valerie Plame. Apparrently, Woodward was one of the first people to be informed of the identity of Ms. Plame, the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, well before it was leaked to other reporters by Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Although the "high level White House official" who divulged this information to Woodward gave him permission to release this information, he unfortunately did not give him permission to release his name. And so Woodward has now had to testify at a preliminary hearing, at which he confirmed all this.
Administration backers are saying this might well absolve Libby of any charged of wrong doing. Except for lying of course, before the Grand Jury, and in contradiction of his sworn statements to Justice Department investigators. But, it is said, perhaps Libby was simply confused after all, to have lied in obvious contradiction of his written notes.
My feelings and opinions is nothing earth shatterring. I think that Libby, and others, are acting out of a sense of urgency and need to protect the Vice President himself. If the truth were known, the President himself, as well, might be involved in this sordid affair. They have all ready used the press shamelessly in their effort to ratchet up American public opinion in favor of the Iraqi War, and when Joseph Wilson crossed them by calling into question many of their assertions, most particularly that made by the President in his 2002 State Of The Union speech, they went after Wilson by asserting his wife, not the Vice President, had commissioned his fact finding trip to the West African nation of Niger. The problem with this is this let out that Wilsons wife was a CIA agent, which immediately may have put at serious risk of imprisonment, harm, or death, those contacts she had made over the years while she pretended to be employed by a company that was in actuality a CIA front.
In short, they may have, knowingly or unknowingly, broken the law. At the very least, they acted in a manner that was highly unethical. And so you have the cover up. And things are getting hotter by the day. In my opinion, this is just one more possible charge in a potential impeachment hearing.
Enter Bob Woodward, the long reknowned Washington Post investigative reporter who uncovered the truth behind the Watergate cover up scandal. What better person to have on your side? In my opinion, he has been in the tank for George W. Bush and his regime for quite some time. I always thought it was a bit odd, the way he suppossedly decided he was going to write a book about the White Houses decisions to go to war agaisnt Iraq, and the events leading up to that ultimate decision. It's like he just decided he was going to do it, and everybody at the White House just rolled over for him, welcomed him in with open arms, because, it was implied, by both him and others, to refuse Bob Woodward might well be an invitation to become the subject of an ongoing journalistic investigation.
Like he just decided this out of the blue, "hell, I think I'm going to write a book about Bush and the war in Iraq"-and it was that damned easy. No, I don;t think so, not even for Bob Woodward.
I have concluded that he was actualy invited to write this book, which was probably as big a con job perpetrated on the American public as anything else involving this stupid war. And I believe Woodward was paid well for his service, and has no telling how much money squirreled away in some Swiss bank account.
I am not the only one that feels this way either, a good many of his fellow journalists at the Post are obviousy dismayed that he kept the information he was earlier granted about Valerie Plame a secret for so long. They have given him a pass, of course, hell, this is Bob Woodward. So he won't be fired, or officially reprimanded. But everybody obviously has questions, and you know they are asking them quietly, if not openly, if to no one but themselves.
I even wonder if the story is true, if he was really given this information, or if this might not be a part of some ploy, some strategy to save Libby's hide, and therefore prevent him from breaking when Patrick Fitzgeral starts putting the squeeze on him fo rmore information which might lead to more, and even more stunning, indictments of higher officials.
After all, if I am right, Woodward has obviously all ready sold his journalistic soul, to people that may have never had one of any kind. A case of an episode of perjury to cover for another might seem untoward for a journalist of all people, especially one that made his reputation for shedding light on such corruption, but once that road is travelled it would be hard to turn back, especially for a man of Woodwards reputation.
But this selling of the Iraqi War and of administration policies in general is nothing unusual to the Bush administration, and Woodward is not the only one compromised, and may not be the first. But the may be the most compelling case of the power of this corrupt administration. Especially the idea of Bush as a type of modern day messiah, which may have begun with Bob Woodward. It may have in fact been Woodward who revealed how Bush believed himself to be specially chosen by God in order to spread freedom and democracy throughout the world, especially the Middle East, beginning with Afghanistan and Iraq.
When this was first revealed before Woodwards book was released, it was met with a great deal of criticism and in some corners derision. It was trumpeted as evidence the President was not truly living in reality. It was implied actually that he may have been sufferring from some kind of serious delusoin or other type mental disorder.
I remember seeing Woodward when he was questioned about this, however, and he seemed genuinely surprised at this, and denied that it was evidence the the President of the United States may have been somewhat crazed. He immediately defended the president, no, he wasn't literally talking to God, it was just a feeling he had. But something about Woodwards defense of this bizzarre type of behavior didn't seem right.
And then it hit me. Bush, through Woodward, was playing up to the religous sensitivities of his far right conservative evangelical fundamentalist base of supporters, and Christians and religous minded people everywhere. In other words, it was a serious, a very serious, miscalculation on Bush's part. Not only were they overestimating the degree of religous superstition and dogmatic literalism of his most ardent supporters, but he seemed to have forgotten that there are an appreciable number of people, here and in the rest of the world, that would see this type of hubris for what it is. But remember, this was near the height of Bush's popularity, and he and his administration were riding high.
Now that popularity seems to have fallen to it's lowest ebb, and Woodward may be in a bind. He has been the object of suspicion for some time now, since his writing of his book about the Bush war in Iraq. The story about Deep Throat began to once again make the rounds, and there were those who said that Deep Throat may actually not have been a real person after all, but a composite of different sources that Woodward used to weave his story about Watergate, seemingly out of whole cloth, and just got it lucky.
Not too long afterwards, the true identity of Deep Throat was finally revealed as one Mark Felt, formerly a top level FBI agent under J. Edgar Hoover. Somebody, or some set of circumstances, lead the family of the old man, now sufferring from dementia, to come forward and reveal the story. Woodward and his partner Carl Bernstein, quickly came forward with verification, after making sure all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed.
And Woodward quickly went to work on another book, this one about Mark Felt, written in conjunction with former partner Bernstein. I am unsure now as to whether this book has been released, but when it finally is it should certainly be a best seller. Mr. Woodward has certainly worked hard at maintaining a professional journalistic reputation. One wonders whether the family of Mark Felt was bribed, and if so, by who.
