Friday, April 21, 2006

Leaking for political purposes: IOKIYAR*

*It's Okay If You're A Republican
I want Congress to hear loud and clear, it is unacceptable behavior to leak classified information when we have troops at risk.
- George W. Bush, October 2001
You had a leak? You call what's goin' on around here a leak? Boy, the last time there was a leak like this, Noah built hisself a boat.

Good lord. How many of Dubya's people have now been implicated in leaking classified or confidential information for political gain? Can anyone keep track?

Let's see--there's Dubya himself, of course, and Unca Dick Cheney, and Cheney's former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, and Bush's Brain Karl Rove--

--and now Condi Rice has been added to the list.

(Remember that, every time her name is brought up as a GOP presidential candidate in 2008, or as a politically palliative replacement for Cheney in 2006.)

And, of course, Republicans leaking for political purposes didn't start in 2000; the Ken Starr investigation/inquisition leaked like a sieve, for no purpose other than to harass Bill Clinton.

In fact, the problem was recognized even before the Starr's reign of terror. I've never been a fan of the Bush Dynasty, but it's still amazing how far the genetic line can fall in a single generation:
I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.

- George H. W. Bush, 1999

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