"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we do practice to deceive," Sir Walter Scott wrote. Newsweek's Michael "Spikey" Isikoff has just decided to dump leakey old Richard "Dick" Armitage, who squealed on Valerie Plame, who blamed George W. Bush, who was stabbed in the back by Armitage's ole' buddy Colin Powell, who sat back while the Media Party spread the lie that Veep Cheney was retaliating against Joe Wilson, who lied on the NYT Op—Ed Page about his trip to Niger to find out about Saddam's yellowcake pursuit ——— which, oddly enough, was not a lie, as Christopher Hitchens has just clearly proven.

Got that? Confused? 

You should be outraged, because an innocent man has been railroaded by the Media—Colin Powell Gang. The innocent man's name is Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, and he was the Vice President's Chief of Staff before he was framed by the upper levels of the CIA, represented by Valerie Plame and her unspeakable hubbie Joe. Lewis Libby is now in the dock and stands to lose his career, his good name and his freedom for ten years.

American justice has been deeply corrupted with the connivance of the media ——— including Judith Miller of the New York TImes, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek  and David Corn of The Nation, the leftwing rag that somehow seems to have remarkably intimate connections to our "mainstream" rags. Objective news reporter Isikoff and leftwing ranter Corn are now pushing a book on the whole mess, and to promote it they are hanging Dick Armitage.

Michael Isikoff earned the sobriquet "Spikey" when Lucianne Goldberg found out that Isikoff's story on Monica Lewinsky was "spiked" by his bosses at Newsweek. Fortunately The Drudge Report took over from Spikey, and now Monica is world—famous, and her name immortalized as a euphemism.  Another year, another scandal. Ever since Monica outed Bill, disgracing a Democrat Administration, Spikey has been trying to recover his leftwing street cred.

Evidently Spikey and David Corn were in on the secret together ——— otherwise they would not be trying to squeeze the last dollar out of their forthcoming book right now. In the process, they rip the covers off the whole affair, leaving Armitage finally exposed as the saboteur who shafted Veep Cheney and the entire administration in a time of Jihad War. What a crew, what a crew.

As AT's legal expert Clarice Feldman points out, "Armitage's silence was inexplicable and perfidious." Armitage could have told the truth, and protected the Administration from years of false accusations by a venal press, constantly fed by the upper—level CIA. Armitage chose not to tell the truth, even to the Special Prosecutor. Firing is too good for this character. He should be prosecuted.

But look what we suddenly know:

1. Lewis Libby is innocent.

2. Spikey is in cahoots with the hard—left Nation and David Corn.

3. The mainstream media have conspired to sabotage and frame Vice President Cheney and President Bush in ways that cannot possibly be protected by the First Amendment ——— unless criminal conduct is protected by the US Constitution.

4. Armitage and his good friend Colin Powell were at least tacit participants in the massive public assault on the Bush Administration.

5. Patrick Fitzgerald, who seems to be a creature of the media only, must now take these new media revelations and prosecute the guilty parties ——— not the innocent. And none of the conspirators must be left out: Not Armitage, who betrayed his country for the sake of revenge, nor Spikey and Dave, who both knew what was going on all along and connived to promote a blatant miscarriage of justice. And possibly not even Colin Powell, who was probably kept in the loop by his good buddy Dick.

James Lewis   8 28 06