It's Time to Do It Right
(Now Doesn't That Make You Feel a Whole Lot Better?)

Apparently the NYT decided Michiko Kakutani's take on Joe Wilson wasn't something enough to stand on its own, because they invited John Dean to take a whack at The Politics of Truth. Since I thought Kakutani was particularly dense, I'm glad to report that the book Dean read actually seems like the same one I read and reviewed, which has a lot more to it than the victim's take on "the most vicious hatchet job inside the Beltway since my colleague in Richard Nixon's White House, the dirty trickster Charles W. Colson, copped a plea for defaming Daniel Ellsberg and his lawyer." I was struck by Dean's decision to emphasize the fingerpointing at Elliott Abrams instead of the more detailed suspicion Wilson throws upon Lewis Libby. I'd also take some issue with Dean's assessment that "his conclusions appear based largely on hearsay from the Washington rumor mill." Hearsay does play some part, sure, but there's also a fair amount of reasonable inference from the public record. It's also worth pointing out that "his conclusions" mirror exactly the rumors floating around the official investigation, and that Dean doesn't repeat Kakutani's mistaken assertion that Wilson's named suspects have denied any involvement.

(Of course, by "something," I mean "good," but the NYT could have another quality in mind, absolutely.)