MARKOS' ANSWER: You know . . . coughs . . . I think a lot of the people that
did have problems with the CIA, I mean it was a very vocal minority. I think most people really didn't think about it all that much. Right? It wasn't really on their radar screens, ah, in the way that now it is, because now we are in this huge war, and it was the CIA that was warning the Administration against invading because, there were no weapons of mass destruction.
Here's a little secret I don't think I've ever written about: But in 2001, I was unemployed, underemployed, unemployed. You know I was in that . . You all have been there "dot com" people? Kinda like, in between jobs, doin' a little contract work and . . . kinda. So, you know. That's where I was: in this really horrible netherworld of 'will I make rent next month' and . . .
So, I applied to the CIA and I went all the way to the end, I mean it was to the point where I was going to sign papers to become Clandestine Services. And it was at that point that the Howard Dean campaign took off and I had to make a decision whether I was gonna kinda join the Howard Dean campaign, that whole process, or was I was going to become a spy. (Laughter in the audience.) It was going to be a tough decision at first, but then the CIA insisted that if, if I joined that, they'd want me to do the first duty assignment in Washington, DC, and I hate Washington, DC. Six years in Washington, DC [inaudible] that makes the decision a lot easier.
[ . . .] This is a very liberal institution. And in a lot of ways, it really does attract people who want to make a better, you know, want to make the world a better place . . . Of course, they've got their Dirty Ops and this and that, right but as an institution itself the CIA is really interested in stable world. That's what they're interested in. And stable worlds aren't created by destabilizing regimes and creating wars. Their done so by other means. Assassination labor leaders . . . I'm kidding!
[ . . . ] I don't think it's a very partisan thing to want a stable world. And even if you're protecting American interests, I mean that can get ugly at times, but generally speaking I think their hearts in the right place. As an organization their heart is in the right place. I've never had any problem with the CIA. I'd have no problem working for them . .
* * * * *
I feared something like this was coming. I warned America back on June 2, 2006 that Markos Moulitsas was "an exquisite little crank," but I remained extremely concerned that he might not be utterly discredited before he was able to steer the Democrats' presidential nomination in 2008.
That's why I started the blog called "The Truth About Markos" in which I said, in an article entitled "The Rehabilitation of Markos Moulitsas,"
Today, Markos Moulitsas, is the doctrinaire leftist publisher of the DailyKos "progressive" anti-war blog, railing against the moderation of candidates like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harold Ford. But in the 1980's, Mr. Moulitsas was an unabashed Reagan Democrat, even working as a campaign aid to George H.W. Bush in the 1992 Presidential election. WASHINGTON MONTHLY FRANCIS L. HOLLAND BLOG
Last year, in a piece Markos wrote for the Cato (libertarian) Institute, Markos acknowledged that the spent the 1980's as a Reagan Republican. MARKOS' CATO ARTICLE, Yes, "Progessive" Markos of DailyKos was a Reagan Republican!!!!!!!!
How did Markos achieve this stunning metamorphosis in just a few short years? Actually, nobody knows and Markos isn't telling. He has told interviewers, improbably, that he last voted for the Republicans in 1992, because he suddenly realized that they didn't support "states rights" as strongly as he would have liked.
Now, I need no longer worry. Democrats will no longer listen to Markos Moulitsas unless they want their presidential candidate to be chosen by an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
But there is so much to say about this. I was banned from participation in MyDD and notified in writing that the banning was because I violated the unspoken rule against criticizing Markos Moulitsas. But I insisted at DailyKos and MyDD that I would prefer to be banned for criticizing someone like Markos than to be ashamed later for having failed to criticize him.
There's another lesson to be learned here. Black people are the Left's "canary in the coal-mine." If you find that you are part of "progressive organization" that has no Black people, you should ask yourself if, perhaps, Black people have legitimate and fundamentally ethical reasons why they refuse to participate, or why we critize. In this case, the reason is that Markos Moulitsas is a Reaganite ex-CIA operative in training. We intuitively do not trust people like that to lead progressive movements.
Each of us in the progressive movement has an obligation to keep his/her eyes open and ward against government and other covert attempts to to destroy or divert our movement. I have criticized and warned the public about Markos Moulitsas because I believe he represents precisely that sort of threat of covert subversion. With the news that Markos was a CIA employee, I feel I have been vindicated and that the role of of the Afrosphere and the historical role of Blacks as the vanguard of the Left has been vindicated.
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