Quote of the Day/Week/Whatever

Thanks to Ambassador Joseph Wilson for this one:

I have no reason not to ensure that the truth is told and I am tired of the way in which the Republicans have smeared my family and myself for no reason other than to perpetuate their lies to the American people. I did not like fascists when I fought them as a diplomat for 23 years and I don't like them now in my own country.

This came from an interview posted on DailyKos concerning, among other things, the various smear and manipulation tactics employed by GOP operatives. I find it remarkable that a career diplomat would choose such a strong word as fascism to describe some of the more unseemly things being done by the Bushies. Perhaps I am ill-versed in the ways of the world, but my understanding was always that diplomats tended sheath hard truths in nuanced language. If there is any word that has supremely undiplomatic connotations, I think that "fascism" is that word. For someone like Ambassador Wilson to use it, he must surely mean it. For those of you who are not up on the news, the backstory goes something like this: The administration didn't particularly like how Joseph Wilson was showing the Niger Yellowcake claims were utterly fraudulent. So in revenge, they leaked to Robert Novak (The Daily Show's "Douchebag of Liberty") that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative. Thus blowing her cover and breaking federal laws in the process.