Where Have We See This Before?

Howard Kurtz, in yesterday's Washington Post revealed the identify of the The New Republic's "Baghdad Diarist" as Scott Thomas Beauchamp.

From what I gather, he's a PV2 (or E-2) which is a bit odd for an infantryman. Back in the day when I was an infantryman (during the end of the Cold War) you came on board as an E-1 and graduated from basic and infantry training as an E-2. Within six months after that, if you had at least a couple of neurons popping, you would make E-3 (PFC). I would suspect during combat operations that rank would come faster. From what Kurtz recounts, Beauchamp's been blogging -- as an active duty service member -- since 2006. Which begs the question -- is he such a bad infantryman that his company commander is not promoting him until he hits the maximum time in service/grade requirements -- or did he have rank only to lose it in a demotion? Either event would explain that big chip on his shoulder.

But here's the part that floored me. His wife is a reporter-researcher for TNR. Think about it for a moment.

If you were to pay a visit to the Sand Hill training area at Fort Benning, where civilians are molded into infantrymen, you're going to see a lot of young men in their late teens and early twenties. A few will be married, some will have girlfriends, but most are unattached. Of those who are married, the wives are either unemployed or working in blue collar jobs back home and are looking to move to their husband's first assignment.

So how did Beauchamp score a reporter-researcher for a wife? Did they meet in college and if so, why didn't Beachamp go to Officer Candidate School? (The Army is hurting for lieutenants.) Moreover, why didn't the wife move to Germany when he was assigned there? (I'm assuming that the wife is working in NYC.) Something doesn't ring true but let's assume that true love reigns -- a reporter-researcher is going to face a lot of separation time with the spouse if he's an infantryman.

But here is where it gets interesting. According to the magazine's editor, Franklin Foer, Beauchamp's credibility was due in part to his wife. In Foer's words: ". . .part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer."

Let's forget for a moment that Beauchamp is probably biased and that his marriage is something of an outlier for military marriages -- where have we heard this before?

It wasn't too long ago when someone's wife asked her spouse to go overseas and report back on what he saw. In fact, didn't the wife suggest that her husband -- "...has good relations with ... and ... lots of ... contacts...could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." (Apologies for all the ellipses but I'm trying to make a point.)

I'm talking about Valerie Plame who had recommended that her husband Joe Wilson -- who may have went over to Niger as a former ambassador but returned as a Democratic party hack -- on an overseas mission to verify if Iraq was indeed pursuing weapons of mass destruction technology. Did that ever turn out to be a debacle -- for everyone involved.

Now fast forward a couple of years later and imagine a reporter-researcher telling her editor that her husband is in Iraq and he's seen all sorts of dreadful things. The editor, if he's like most of society, wouldn't know the life of a soldier any more than he would know how to operate a nuclear reactor, signs on. After all, the wife seems credible. Next thing you know -- in today's day -- there are lots of volunteer fact checkers out there and as the fate that befell Joe Wilson -- there are a lot folks out there proving you to be wrong.

You may have noticed that I never mentioned the wife's name -- she may be a covert operative after all and I'm not going to take any chances. The only question is -- who's side is she on?

Random Thoughts

It's been a few months since the crisis at Walter Reed Medical Center and you mean to tell me that the only ones who lost their jobs were the Secretary of the Army, the Army Surgeon General, and the Center's commander? Well, what about the other managers of the hospital -- weren't they also part of the problem?

Have our counter-proliferation efforts come to a standstill now that Valerie Plame is no longer working at the CIA? In all the hype that surrounded her "scandal" I don't recall anyone saying that her departure was a big loss.

Having served in Iraq, the stuff that the New Republic is putting out seems far-fetched. You can tell the difference between an Iraqi soldier and a contractor -- probably a terp -- in a nanosecond. For starters, Iraqi female soldiers are few and far between. Further, the digging story doesn't ring true --given the description, either an engineer unit or contractors would have to support the level of digging that the unit is required to pull off. Anyway, I don't think the New Republic has a problem with made up stuff -- I think it of as a dreadful fiction magazine.

Is it me or is CNN.com an Internet version of a supermarket counter tabloid?

Wither Pro Sports?

I’m a fan of professional sports – not an avid, must watch ESPN and subscribe to Sports Illustrated fan – but a fan nonetheless. It’s a great social lubricant – hey did you see the game last night? What about that play? You get the idea.

However, the older I gets the less enamored I become with it – it becomes seedier and less honorable. (And in a time of war, it seems silly to call star athletes, “heroes” anyway.) You realize it’s just another business.

Alas, the professional leagues aren’t helping themselves out any. In baseball, Barry Bonds, as I write this, is just a couple of swings away from eclipsing Henry Aaron’s record for the most home runs in a career. Yet, in Sunday's New York Daily News, it seems that perjury and tax evasion indictments will be handed to Mr. Bonds by the end of the season.

Michael Vick, as noted on these pages, is in a world of hurt. He’s just the current face of the problem that the NFL has been facing (and to it’s credit – combating) of late.

Now the NBA is having the credibility of its games come under question as a referee is under investigation for fixing games he officiated for his own personal gain.

Hockey and soccer, like professional women’s basketball, simply aren’t part of the bit time.

None of this is really new. Gaylord Perry used a spitball for most of his career; the 1986 Mets were anything but honorable schoolboys; Lawrence Taylor claims to have been on drugs and O.J. Simpson, lest anyone forget was a gridiron favorite. And in basketball, who can forget the Malice in the Palace?

What’s interesting though is how these events are coming to the fore like a 1-2 punch combination.

I’m sure somebody will come up with a stupid notion like having some federal sports authority monitor the games but that won’t help.

No, this part of the rot that’s affecting our society – in our culture, in our politics, and in our lives. Sports is no different.

Perhaps this is a low moment for pro sports but I fear that this is merely a tip of a very unforgiving iceberg.

Vick's Caper Flub

You really have to feel for Michael Vick -- well, not really. The ones who are the big losers are his agent, the ones who paid him a fortune in endorsements, and his brother, Marcus, who may have to do something other than live off his brother's largess.

But make no mistake about - Vick is done. Unlike Kobe or O.J., he can't blame the victim -- what the dogs wanted to fight? Furthermore, while he's an exciting player, Vick is not a winner. And at the end of the day, there are those who will hold their nose in order to keep a winner on the team.

Tom Brady, Payton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger are not flashy but they each have a Super Bowl ring. Vick, in contrast, takes off as soon as he sees his first receiver covered -- without bothering to see if the second or third receiver is open. Sure the team has shown flashes of brilliance with Vick at the helm but they never got far in the playoffs.

It seems the NFL will let the justice system run its course and let Vick play but what team can afford to have a QB play with an indictment? Don't you think that it's going to have some impact on his psyche?

Anyway you look at it, this is a no-win situation for the Falcons -- look for them to cut their losses quickly.

Popping Smoke

Senator John McCain should take a sheet from the Governor Jim Gilmore play boook -- and drop out of the race.

If McCain continues on his present course, it will be an ill-suited coda to what has been a an otherwise remarkable career. (Will anybody remember Michael Jordan's lackluster seasons with the Washington Wizards? What about Willie Mays' time with the New York Mets? Don't even get me started on Joe Namath's tenure with the Rams.)

At present, McCain's campaign is a mess and there is nothing on the horizon that will suggest that things will improve any time soon.

McCain's failure is that he's running as if its 2000 all over again. However, much has changed since then -- (and we're not even going to discuss 9/11).

McCain's claim to popularity was that he was seen as the less ideological (and perhaps more competent) alternative to George Bush as the contest eight years ago was a two man race. (Go ahead and the name the other Republicans who were in the running.)

In the interim, McCain has been tone-deaf to his party with respect to illegal immigration and campaign funding. In today's Net-savvy environment, it's much easier to forgive than forget. And it seems that the pollsters are finding both in short supply when it comes to McCain's campaign.

Moreover, there is a thin dimes worth of difference between McCain and the other candidates on most issues, so McCain supporters can make common cause with them -- especially at crunch time during the general election.

There is another fact too -- McCain is no spring chicken at 70 years of age and the suffering he endured as a POW will probably become more pronounced as he ages. Regardless of one's affinity for his views, those issues cannot be easily sidestepped.

In short, there is very little in the way of an upside for McCain to continue. When Soldiers pull out of a no-win situation, they pop smoke grenades to obscure their retreat. It's time for McCain to do the same.

Pull Out

Remember back in 1995 when then- President William J. Clinton told the world that U.S. forces would spend just one year in Bosnia -- the folks there had 365 days to get their act together -- and then we're out of there. Well if you missed the news -- and you should have as it wasn't covered much by Big Media -- the U.S. finally pulled up stakes in Bosnia. For those mathematically challenged, that's a dozen years -- not one.

The point is not to slam the 42nd President --that's a cottage industry populated by right wing loonies. Further, that horse is dead, why continue to beat it? Besides Bill wasn't lying -- he was merely playing politics with the military.

The point is that the first 1 1/2 tiers (H. Clinton, B. Obama & J. Edwards) of the Democratic party are calling for a pullout of U.S. forces in Iraq like right now. However, they will settle for the last helicopter to fly from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on 19 January 2009. Just goes to show what happens when lawyers, without an iota of time in any of the services, run for President. (I guess that's why Wes Clark is keeping a low profile -- he'd be a handy VP to allay those concerned with the nominee's lack of national security experience.)

Why the rush? Couple of reasons -- President Bush, despite repeated addresses on the virtue of staying the course, has to compete with mounting casualties; Big Media's box-score keeping mentality (e.g., today's bombing was [location], X were killed, and Y were injured; film at 11); and that this conflict is now going on its fourth year.

As it stands right now, the Democratic presidential-wannabes are eager to pull out. If they assume the Oval Office, then politics gets tossed in favor of national security. They are not the one and the same. (A precedent of sorts was established by Clinton's Bosnian flip-flop. Admittedly the two situations are not perfectly analogous.) So here's the big reason -- no Democrat wants this on the "to-do" list on Inauguration Day. It's best for Bush to take the hit (i.e., "losing Iraq"). They certainly don't want to deal with the potential of a no-win situation early in their administration.

So what now? The surge from various accounts seems to be working. Further, Bush has shown no inkling that he's going to change course. (He doesn't seem to care much about his low poll numbers -- he's looking at history, not the election cycle.) More importantly, it doesn't seem that the Congress has the votes (or the will) to override him now -- as they don't want to be tarred with the "loser" sobriquet.

Expect more vitriolic attacks on the President's policy; furthermore don't expect him to make any changes anytime soon. When it comes to pulling out -- it took a dozen years to redeploy from a permissive environment -- it's going to take longer from a non-permissive environment.

You've Got Mail, Johnny C.

There is a lighthearted -- as lighthearted as things get for The New York Times -- with their bond status sinking like a hot rock about how The Garden State's governor, Jon Corzine, is no longer going to use email.

Anyway, that reminded me of a time back when I was in the service. A new commanding general came on board and the word was that he didn't do email. My first thought was -- whoa here's a guy just too busy and important to be pecking away on a keyboard. All email was to be directed to his aide-de-camp. After a while we figured out what the email ban was all about -- he was too gutless to put his name to anything that could be part of an audit trail. Imagine our utter shock when we learned the real truth of the matter -- the guy was a moron. He couldn't articulate a coherent thought on paper if you put a gun to his head.

Governor Corzine is no moron but that doesn't mean he doesn't do the moronic such as speeding and crashing sans seat belt on a NJ highway.

In typical closing the barn door after the horse is gone fashion, Corzine isn't emailing anymore because he's being asked for his previous emails to a former state union president who used to be his paramour. (I don't know the specifics of the case but it certainly looks funny.)

Anyway, the lighthearted nature comes from the fact that the Times transcriber, er, journalist notes that Corzine didn't email all that much anyway. (How hard would it have been to get somebody to say that on the record? Or, explain why nobody would say that for attribution.)

Anyway, it's a technique -- when you've done something you probably shouldn't have done -- it's better to come off as a goof ball rather than an evil genius. Let's see how long this act plays.

Surging?

So there I am at my local grocery paying way too much for frozen waffles when I notice a new magazine on the rack by the check out. It's called Men's Vogue. I'm thinking this is great as we all need another liberal men's fashion magazine. (And to think that GQ and Esquire didn't have that demographic already lined up -- liberals who want to dress well at ridiculous prices.)

Well it was the cover that got my attention. In a manly pose on the back of an old pickup truck was the one term Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards along with his faithful dog. (Or somebody's dog at least.) But it wasn't the picture that grabbed my attention -- it was the blurb that went along with it. It said something about his "surge in the polls."

OK, what surge? According to the folks over at RCP, Johnny E. is drawing about 12.3% of the Democratic vote with Hillary C. at 30% , B. Obama at 23% , and Al (I'm not running) Gore at 14.5%.

If that's surging, I hate to see how they would describe his candidacy if it was dead in the water. I don't know. I'm too upset about the cost of frozen waffles.

Ice Ice Baby

"Those ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids are killing us. Especially when it comes on delivery days."

Overheard in the men's restroom today at a DC hotel hosting an American Farm Bureau conference. It was one of those meetings designed to enhance their Congressional lobbying skills.

Alas it's a bit too late to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform now.