Abu Wabu

I believe I finally understand why an anonymous commenter here is having such a hard time understanding that Joe Wilson lied about being sent to Niger "at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney"; she must read Juan Cole who, as Christopher Hitchens explains, has problems comprehending unequivocal statements.

Cole is unable to accept that Iranian whacko-from-hell Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel; perhaps he hasn't yet found that particularly parsed phrasing of "Death to Israel" that he is searching for to the exclusion of all else in the known universe. Faithful as he is to intellectual honesty, Hitchens resorts to those two old left-wing bugbears, logic and reason, to help Cole overcome his dimness on the matter:

One might have thought that, if the map-wiping charge were to have been inaccurate or unfair, Ahmadinejad would have denied it. But he presumably knew what he had said and had meant to say. In any case, he has an apologist to do what he does not choose to do for himself. But this apologist, who affects such expertise in Persian, cannot decipher the plain meaning of a celebrated statement and is, furthermore, in need of a remedial course in English.

Which pretty much describes the character flaws that would lead one to apologize for notorious liar Joe Wilson.