VS. 
Liberal blogosphere or Bush admininstration hack: Who would you trust?
It's been two years, so I can forgive people who went looking for information about Feith recently if they overlooked this, what was one of the first progressive blogosphere forays into publishing, before it became the hot new thing to do. With Doug Feith's excuse opus coming out next month (for the love of God, don't pay for the thing, steal it from somewhere or read over somebody's shoulder), it occurs to me that it might be worth reminding people that there were, in fact, people on this story before anybody else could be paid to pay attention.
People like ABW, who put together an exhaustive timeline of all Feith's missteps and mistakes in a Kos diary, such that you can go all the way back to 1996 to see how this mess got started.
People like Matt Yglesias, who put the blame where it really belonged, on the Congress that did absolutely zero oversight of anything Feith and his cronies were doing.
People like Jack K at The Grumpy Forrester who brought home why what Feith did isn't just some silly insider Washington issue.
Anyone looking for information on Feith could do worse than to start there. Anyone looking for a counterweight to his 900-some pages of "I didn't know nothing" and "the Bush ate my homework, see how unpopular he is now, it's all his fault" and "mistakes were made" could do worse than to look to the people who participated in efforts to push this story before it was popular and widely accepted. Some of these posts go back to 2003, which in blogtime is prehistoric, I know, but the history's worth knowing so the present mound of bullshit makes sense.
A.
One of the first blog-based books, the anthology Special Plans examines Feith's role in misleading America into war. Buy from 
who published feith???
Posted by: pansypoo | March 13, 2008 at 12:16
I love the fact that the #1 tag on the Amazon site is "Dumbest f_cking guy on the planet." Everyone should go there and make and enter that tag (need to have an Amazon login) and sure that it can never be erased from the front page.
Posted by: Dane Janeiro | April 03, 2008 at 05:54
"who published feith???"
Had to be Regnery. Who else would publish such trash?
Posted by: gonzone | April 03, 2008 at 06:42
"Had to be Regnery. Who else would publish such trash?"
You haven't been paying attention...There are no "reputable" publishing houses left...They all rush such swill into print...
Posted by: D.R.Marvel | April 03, 2008 at 08:48
HarperCollins, isn't it?
Posted by: Ken Houghton | April 03, 2008 at 11:39
I love the fact that the #1 tag on the Amazon site is "Dumbest f_cking guy on the planet."
Why, thank you. ;)
I added it first, in a form that I hoped wouldn't get deleted by an overzealous Amazon person, and I'm glad to see it's still there.
Feith is actually being published by a non-Regnery outlet. Have to imagine he called in a few favours there. Though War and Decision is probably the lamest title ever, which suggests that the poor editor given this heap of self-justifying crap was phoning it in.
Posted by: pseudonymous in nc | April 03, 2008 at 11:44
I was Doug Feith's secretary in 1978-9 when he was a brand new associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman (the firm has since morphed into one with another name). I've been meaning to write up my impressions of him from that time for awhile now. Were I to do such a thing, where do you think I should post it? I have a 2 entry diary at Kos; I suppose I could put it there -- any other ideas/suggestions?
Posted by: Nora Carrington | April 03, 2008 at 13:50
Another good read is in, of all places, The American Conservative. Libertarian/conservative Karen Kwiatkowski had the pleasure of working under Feith during the run-up to the Iraq war.
http://www.amconmag.com/2003/12_1_03/feature.html
Posted by: Laury Moore | April 03, 2008 at 15:35
Nora, a Kos diary might be a good place to start. Be sure to send it over. Might make for interesting reading!
My condolences on having to work with him. From what Karen Kwiatkowski says, it wasn't fun.
A.
Posted by: Athenae | April 03, 2008 at 16:35
If we still had a constitutional republic, this... revolting excuse for a human being would be behind bars, along with his merry little band of stovepipers.
Posted by: Ref | April 03, 2008 at 19:18
I went to high school with Doug Feith. He was a suckup toady asshole then, and never changed.
Posted by: some other george | April 05, 2008 at 23:54
I went to high school with Doug Feith. He was a suckup toady asshole then, and never changed.
Posted by: some other george | April 05, 2008 at 23:55