So I get to the Riviera in Vegas, which is an older hotel and shows it in every surface, and I'm wandering through the empty casino area at about 8:30 this morning, trying to find the convention area and wondering if I'm even in the right place for this shindig.

    And then I come around the corner and standing right in front of me is Joe Wilson.

    As in Ambassador Joe Wilson, author of the op-ed piece that blew the whistle on Bush's lies about Iraq trying to buy yellowcake from Niger.  Ambassador Joe Wilson whose family was made an example of in revenge by the White House by outing his covert CIA wife, Valerie Plame, the first CIA operative in history to be outed by her own government, the case which has led to the indictment of Dick Cheney's chief of staff and which will ultimately probably result in many more similar prosecutions.

    Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was personally responsible for staring down Saddam Hussein just before the first U.S. war in Iraq, obtaining the safe passage home of numerous American citizens.

    Gen-u-ine American hero Joe Wilson. 

    Nice guy, it turns out.

    Last place I ever figured I'd meet this guy was in the hallways of a cheesy old Vegas hotel.

    Truly interesting country, this America. 

    But then we all knew that.