How to deal with egg on your face

Imagine that somebody threw at you lots of eggs (in public, too), most of it ending up on your face. What is the best way to deal with the situation? Run to the closest restroom and clean up to the best of your ability? Try to behave as if nothing has happened and continue mingling with the crowd? Beat up the offender (what if he/she happens to be twice as large as you...)?

No and no and no. It appears that the best way to deal with this embarrassing situation is to: a) use the accumulated eggs for an omelet and b) sell the omelet to the surrounding public.

This is exactly what David Corn, the Washington editor of The Nation and one of the more active anti-Bushists in the Plame affair, is doing quite successfully these days. The man spent so much time and effort, gleefully rubbing his hands in anticipation of the resounding crash of the current administration (most of it, give or take a few members he missed), he is in a dire need of an anti-burn salve to put on his palms.

To see is to believe, and you have to see it for yourself. Go to davidcorn.com and search the site for "Plame affair". I have got ten pages at least. In short - the man is obsessed with the subject. Of course, he was not alone, far from it. Anyone, from the political enemies of the current administration to outright conspiracy loonies, beat their drums. The only difference between the drummers was in the weight they ascribed to the agents of the world Zionism in the whole business.

And here is the way to sell the omelet:

It was Richard Armitage, when he was deputy secretary of state in July 2003, who first disclosed to conservative columnist Robert Novak that the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson was a CIA employee. A Newsweek article -- based on the new book I cowrote with Newsweek correspondent Michael Isikoff, Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War -- discloses that Armitage passed this classified information to Novak during a July 8, 2003 interview.

You see - there is no need to refer to the source of the eggs at all. Just mention, in an elegant and not at all pushy way, that there is an omelet and it is on sale.

Of course, some of the yolk will leave its stains, no matter what:

Colleagues of Armitage told us that Armitage -- who is known to be an inveterate gossip -- was only conveying a hot tidbit, not aiming to do Joe Wilson harm.

But hey - who cares, with such a beauty of a meal waiting on the table!

And you know what: Mr Corn is still trying to persuade us that maybe there weren't any eggs in the first place? Look at this unbelievable statement:

The outing of Armitage does change the contours of the leak case. The initial leaker was not plotting vengeance. He and Powell had not been gung-ho supporters of the war. Yet Bush backers cannot claim the leak was merely an innocent slip.

What is that smell, please? Could it possibly be that some of the eggs in that omelet were a bit off?

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To clarify: I am not an ardent supporter of the current Washington administration. And yes, the story of the Iraq war is full of shady dealings and major mistakes. And yes, it should be investigated to smithereens.

But from here to the rivers of pointless vitriol and hate spewed by the self-appointed "progressives" and self-assigned "peaceniks" - no, thanks but no thanks.