Ruling By Smears

Some have seemed confused recently on my comments on Rove/Wilson/Plame , et al. My point is attempting to make clear the lack of transparency and diversionary tactics employed by these people when challenged. Paul Krugman ( ya I know, he is an evil liberal) does a pretty good job of expressing this here:

Mr. Rove also understands, better than anyone else in American politics, the power of smear tactics. Attacks on someone who contradicts the official line don't have to be true, or even plausible, to undermine that person's effectiveness. All they have to do is get a lot of media play, and they'll create the sense that there must be something wrong with the guy.
And now we know just how far he was willing to go with these smear tactics: as part of the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson IV, Mr. Rove leaked the fact that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for the C.I.A. I don't know whether Mr. Rove can be convicted of a crime, but there's no question that he damaged national security for partisan advantage. If a Democrat had done that, Republicans would call it treason.
But what we're getting, instead, is yet another impressive demonstration that these days, truth is political.

I don't know who is guilty but someone is and there is little doubt in my mind it was done to smear him for challenging the administration. They play this game with every issue. Why would this be any different? Mr. Fitzgerald ought to get ready to find out how he is the most vile creature on the planet.

Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?