Outed CIA covert operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joe Wilson, gave an interview to Katie Couric on 60 Minutes. In the first segment, Plame Wilson spoke frankly about being betrayed by this administration, as well as her assessment of the damage done to the nation's security by revealing her identity:
Part One: Download Download (thanks to BillW for videos)
But the second segment is where Couric goes off the rails and shows her flair for White House talking points. It's almost as if she implies that Plame Wilson should have expected the White House to out her because the work she did touched on the question that sent her husband, Amb. Joseph Wilson, to Niger.
COURIC: You never for a moment thought this could potentially jeopardize my career?
PLAME: It's called ‘living your cover.' This had nothing to do with what I was doing. He was part of the debate.
COURIC: But admit it, it comes awfully close to what you were doing, even covertly. I mean, you were trying to ascertain if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He's writing an article saying ‘it's really not valid, this one assertion.' I mean, can't you see how those two things might collide and in a very dangerous way?
Couric should be embarassed for her arsenal of GOP talking points disguised as an interview. Seriously, this is a covert agent telling you that national security was compromised and you think this is the kind of question that needed to be asked?
Can you understand how people just were turned off by that whole thing? They felt "Gee, maybe she's enjoying her celebrity a little too much."
She even at one point accused Valerie of being very partisan and Joseph Wilson of still seething... can you believe that hackery? Did it ever cross her mind to ask that of President Bush in her softball interview from Iraq? Of course not.
To the end, the Wilsons held strong to the truth and never backed down, even when the CIA made it difficult for her to publish her own book on the events, Fair Game, eventually redacting 10% of it.
Couric: "Do you think President Bush was in on this?"
Plame: "I don't know about that, but I, like most other Americans saw President Bush say on TV that he would fire anyone from his administration found to be involved in the leak of my name. It turns out, the president is not a man of his word."