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October 09, 2003

Too casual

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has a nice editorial about how Bush seems to be just a bit too casual about the Plame leak.

Bush has shown no sign of anger at the leak and, in fact, has publicly suggested that he doesn't think an investigation will succeed in finding the culprit. That doesn't concern him much either. He is trying to treat it as a leak just like any other leak, in a town that leaks like a sieve anyway.

This is not any leak.

The agent in question, Valerie Plame, has been a CIA operative for almost 20 years, recruiting and running undercover agents overseas to gather intelligence on the spread of weapons of mass destruction. That is a critically important line of work, so important that certain nations have even been known to go to war over WMD.

Hmmm.... I wonder what country they might be referring to, eh?

Bush, by his apparent indifference, sends the disturbing message to his staff that such behavior is no big deal. That reveals more about his administration than all the investigators in the world ever could.

Assurances that he wants to "get to the bottom of this" aside, Bush's reaction to the entire scandal has made it clear that he really doesn't want the culprit to be found.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5 Democratic Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, have sent a letter to President Bush outlining five ways in which this investigation has already been compromised:

"Already, just fourteen days into this investigation, there have been at least five serious missteps," the senators wrote. "We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted."

The letter was signed by Daschle and Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

The objections were:

• The Justice Department began the investigation Sept. 26 but did not ask the White House to order employees to preserve relevant evidence until Sept. 29.



• Gonzales did not order employees to preserve their records until the next day, when the investigation was announced.



• The Justice Department did not ask the Pentagon and State Department to preserve possible evidence until late on Oct. 1, after news reports that such a request was coming.



• White House press secretary Scott McClellan has said he determined that three senior officials who were the subject of speculation in news accounts were not involved in leaking classified information.
  
  The senators wrote: "Clearly, a media spokesperson does not have the legal expertise to be questioning possible suspects or evaluating or reaching conclusions about the legality of their conduct."



• Ashcroft remains responsible for the probe despite his close political and personal relationships with Bush and his top aides.

Bush has spoken before about how he's the "master of low expectations" meaning that he's so good at lowering expectations of what he's capable of doing that when he fails, it doesn't appear to be that big of a deal, and when he succeeds, he looks that much better by comparison to what he set people up to expect. In this case, he wants us to expect the inquiry to fail because that way he can claim it's a "non-issue", and try to repudiate anyone who wants to make it a point in the upcoming election.

If his opponents try to paint him as someone who willingly tolerates having in his employ the kind of person who would not only put the life of a woman who has faithfully served the country for nearly 20 years in danger, but commits a felony in the process, he can respond by pointing out his statement that he wants to get to the bottom of this and the "thorough" investigation that was done and found nothing. Unfortunately, for many, that will probably be enough.

That's one reason why its so important to stay on top of this investigation and to keep the pressure on. The fact that we're starting to see papers, like the Atlanta Journal Constitution, denouncing Bush's laissez-fair approach to the investigation is good. We need to see it from more, though - and that means we need to be writing letters to the editor to help convince them that this is a significant issue that they should take a stand on.

It's also why we need to write to our Representatives and Senators and let them know that an independent investigation is necessary - something that isn't being run by someone with close ties to Bush, and a personal stake in seeing him re-elected (such as John Ashcroft who's personal interest would be in getting to keep his job - which he would lose if Bush is defeated).

This isn't some kind of blunder than can be set aside and easily forgotten. This is a serious, criminal matter and deserves to be treated as such.

Posted by thorswitch at October 9, 2003 11:05 PM

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