The Talking Points crusade (can we still say ‘crusade’?) against Richard Perle is catching on. And across the ideological spectrum too.
Jude Wanniski — pied piper of supply-side economics — gets into the act. He actually calls on Don Rumsfeld to fire his deputy Paul Wolfowitz (a topic we’ve touched on here before, though I don’t think Wolfowitz is in the Perle category by any means). But Perle gets his mention too.
Here’s what he says:
Do you realize that Wolfowitz, and his pal Richard Perle who chairs your Defense Policy Board, have been calling all their friends in the press corps, urging them to beat the drums for war with Iraq? Perle actually signed the âfamousâ letter of 41 drafted by Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, who is Perleâs mouthpiece in Washington … It is incomprehensible to me that you would allow Perle to remain at that post, where he is permitted to read all the most sensitive secret traffic flowing through the Pentagon. Not that he wouldnât see it anyway, courtesy of Wolfowitz, but how brazen can he be and get away with it.
Now, I disagree with a number of points Wanniski makes in his piece. But the inappropriateness of Perle’s behavior should be clear to everyone.
Also, let’s roll out the first edition of the Richard Perle Media Hall of Shame (RPMHS): the list of media outlets which have featured Perle without noting his position in this administration. So far CNN, The Washington Post, and the London Daily Telegraph have all joined. No doubt others are soon to take the plunge.
