TAKE UP YOUR POSITIONS AND SHOOT ON SIGHT

Whatever. The story's out there, folks, and you look stupid attacking the messenger. See Josh Marshall's discussion here.

MORE: Notice that NRO describes May as a "former New York Times foreign correspondent" and president of a think tank dedicated to policy issues. Why doesn't NRO describe Clifford May as former "Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee?" Here's his bio from his newly created think tank's own website:

From 1997 to 2001, he served as the Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee. In that role, he was the Republican Party's staff spokesman, and appeared frequently on national television and radio programs. In addition, he managed all RNC communications activities, including long-range strategic planning; press, radio and television services; online services; TV and radio coaching; speech writing; advertising and marketing. He also served as the Editor of the official Republican magazine, Rising Tide.

If I were a jerk, I could write an article very similar to the one he just wrote and published in NRO about the alleged partisan slant of the CIA's own delegated operative. In addition to being a well-established Republican PR man, May is an individual who can use the terms "Blame-America-Firsters, Bush-bashers, Saddam apologists and Appeasement Activists" in an unironic fashion.

NEXT!

The story is that the Bush administration was either intentionally misleading or that the administration didn't know how to talk to the CIA with respect to the factual underpinnings of the monumental decision of whether or not to send American troops to kill and be killed in Iraq. That's a big story, folks.

And I agree with Mark Kleiman that the real issue here is presidential character.

For those of you who are interested in an international take on the controversy, see Stefan Kornelius's commentary here, and the Tagesspiegel's article here, with the headline, "Bush attacks the CIA." A much more, ahem, colorful version of the same headline can be found at Whiskey Bar. Unfortunately, the, um, "bedroom epithet" that Billmon uses in his post's headline is not suitable for this blog, which has a decidedly family-friendly orientation.