Fear the Man Behind the Curtain

As a rule, I don't believe in conspiracies, largely because I don't have much faith in large numbers of people to keep a secret. Of course, when the other side is flat out evil, such as Bush Administration guru Karl Rove, then anything is possible. Here we have a United States Congressman making the allegation that Karl Rove planted the fake memos that Dan Rather et al. got caught with.

This is just sad.

Audience Member: Don’t you think it’s irresponsible to make charges like that?

Congressman Hinchey: No I don’t. I think it’s very important to make charges like that. I think it’s very important to combat this kind of activity in every way that you can. And I’m willing — and most people are not — to step forward in situations like this and take risks.

It would seem that for Congressman Hinchley, the guilt of the Bush Administration is evident, and all that is needed is the allegations. There is no room for the rational discussion of fact when fact is entirely optional:

Congressman Hinchey: ...once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush’s draft dodging. Once they were able to say, ‘This is false! These papers are not accurate, they’re, they’re, they’re false, they’ve been falsified.’ That had the effect of taking the whole issue away.

Audience Member: So you have evidence that the papers came from the Bush administration?

Congressman Hinchey: No. I — that’s my belief.

Belief. So who is it again that is supposed to be trying to turn the country onto a path dictated by belief unsupported by fact? Which side is it that refers to themselves as the reality based community?