Those Incredible Neocons

Josh Marshall and others continue to be a bit gobsmacked that Chalabi defenders like Gingrich and Perle aren't getting the message from the neocons inside the administration that their boy did, in fact, do something very, very bad.

Today Josh asks around thinking that the insider neos might not be convinced themselves, but comes up once again with the news that everybody who has any info on this is convinced that Chalabi is guilty as sin. Clearly, they have let that be known to their fellow travellers.

Which leads us to the obvious conclusion that Newt and Perle and the rest of the die-hards don't give a damn if Chalabi sold the country down the river to the Iranians, nor do they care about this silly concept of "credibility." Their experience is that there is no such thing. You hold your ground, keep pushing your position no matter what the circumstances or the facts may be, and eventually people will move on, forget the details and you will have lost nothing. Where there is no accountability there is no such thing as credibility.

Newt in particular is a master at this. He has said and done the most outrageous, radical, hypocritical things imaginable over his career, he has failed spectacularly, was forced to leave congress and yet he continues to be welcomed to the DOD, the White House, the GOP think tank apparatus and the media as an elder statesman and intellectual guiding light. Why would a small matter of espionage shake his belief in Chalabi's usefulness as a Republican tool?

On the other hand, one might also ask whether there is a more personal motive people might have for continuing to defend Chalabi in spite of what appears to be a universal acknowledgement within the administration of his guilt. Just how much classified information does the Defense Policy Board have access to, I wonder?


Update: Kevin quotes Danielle Pletka, one of Chalabi's most ardent cheerleaders, as now saying that Chalabi may have given secrets to Iran, but it's not that big of a deal because he isn't an American citizen and "owes us no fealty."

It is almost beyond comprehension that the ultra-patriots on the Right have the gall to say these things and even more shocking that they aren't called on it.

Dick Cheney wanted to put those Lackawanna boys down at Gitmo and throw away the key becaue they'd been to Afghanistan. Instead they were given 8 to 10 years in prison. Chalabi, a high level double agent for a member of the axis of evil, a man who was paid millions of dollars by US taxpayers and spent time in the salons and offices of the biggest Washington movers and shakers for the last ten years, is not prosecutable and presumably should be left to do as he pleases. Jayzuz. That's some moral clarity for ya.

The hell with that. If we're dragging poppy farmers out of caves in Afghanistan based on the word of some informant we've bribed with $5,000, I think we can "detain" Mr Chalabi and send him down to Gitmo for a little of that patented General Ripper interrogation. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan --- it's all part of the GWOT, right?