There is more than a hint of Nixon in Bush's mindset.
The Bush administration continue to be schizophrenic in their attitudes towards leaking, maintaining that it is bad and harmful to national security, whilst simultaneously leaking like a sieve when it suits their political purposes.
This has been highlighted by the recent firing of Mary McCarthy, in a case that surely qualifies as whistle blowing, and with the recent accusations that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaked national defense information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence.
The latter will be defended by the Bushites and the former may end up facing prosecution.
It is also impossible to believe that the Bush administration are acting on some high moral principle, as opposed to some cynical political motives, when one considers that no-one has ever been prosecuted for the judicious amount of leaking that occurred prior to the Iraq war concerning Saddam's supposed acquisition of WMD to Judith Miller of the New York Times.
In that instance, because the leaking suited the policy of the administration, there has never been so much as an investigation far less a prosecution.
So what we are left with is a President (who decries when others play "politics") using the full force of the law to ensure that his version of the truth is the only version that is legally acceptable. Even when, in the case of Iraq's WMD, his version turns out to be totally false.
He has also, as we witnessed in the case of "Scooter" Libby, allowed himself the get out clause that any classified information he discloses instantly becomes declassified on the grounds that he is the one doing the leaking.
There is more than a hint of Nixon in Bush's mindset, there is the exact same paranoid need to control the "truth" and the exact same willingness to bend that same "truth" to fit his narrow political agenda.
Bush, like Nixon, is a small man occupying a great office that he is unfit for.
Nixon at least gained entry to that office on his own merits, Bush is there for no better reason than his father once occupied it before him.
This was never an acceptable reason for the Republicans to have chosen him as their candidate, and they will one day regret that they ever did.
I suggest the November mid-term elections might be the very place that those regrets begin.
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2 comments:
Evidently she blew the whistle on a notional program - i.e. it didn't exist. At least the Euros haven't found it so far.
There are links to the Tides Foundation. The Kerrys. Bill Clinton. Communist Front Organizations. etc.
The sting is straight out of "Bodyguard of Lies" - tell a story with just enogh truth, multiple sources, and plays to the prejudices of your enemies. The story won a Pulitzer Prize.
I have more to say here.
The Dems are going to get "Party of Traitors" label out of this.
I think you're engaging in more than a little wishful thinking there, buddy.
First the rumour about the whole thing being "a sting" was first floated by Rick Moran at the aptly named, "Rightwing Nuthouse". He seems to think that he can use this to stifle the rumours about European secret jails. And even though the jails haven't been found yet, there's an awful lot of extraordinary rendition flights beings clocked all over Europe. They're taking all those people someplace!
And if you think this is the biggest story around and that it will hurt the Democrats, you possibly haven't noticed that the CIA told Bush before he invaded Iraq that there weren't any WMD.
People died because he lied.
I also visited your blog and read what you think will happen to the Dems at the next election.
Have you even looked at a poll recently? Bush is tanking at around 33-34%. That's lower than Nixon during Watergate!
So enjoy your dreams buddy, the nightmare reality comes in November at the mid terms.
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