The Man Who Would Be Clueless

Hitch’s latest salvo on the Plame Affair – Clueless Joe Wilson – leads me back to the conclusion I and others drew from this tawdry business when it was first made public what seems like eons ago. Wilson was chosen (by his “cloak-and-dagger” wife and by the CIA) for the Niger mission precisely because he could be relied upon to come back with nothing. They got even more than they bargained for – overwhelming self-centered arrogance yielding to endless venalilty on all sides (including journalists lapping up meretricious book contracts). Although my title references Kipling, the whole pathetic story is a natural for Evelyn Waugh. Too bad he’s gone.