Small signs of intelligent life

Last night O’Reilly brought out Newt Gingrich to repeat a tired smear that dates back to the first days of the whole Wilson/Plame business: his wife got him the job.

Translation in the current context: never mind about Karl Rove’s deceit or the exposure of a CIA agent’s cover (not to mention the cover company for which she worked, and any other agent who might have been using her cover story to bolster their own). The real scandal here is the boondoggle trip that Valerie scored for her husband, an all expenses paid vacation to Niger.

Well, finally someone mentions something that’s been bugging me ever since I heard this line of reasoning:

Why a mission to Niger would be such a plum assignment is still a mystery, but the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a report last year, quotes a State Department official as saying that Ms. Wilson had suggested sending her husband. She denies it.

(Via Atrios.)