Posted on 04/08/2006 8:42:11 AM PDT by Carling
They want to "get" this President on anything and everything, and the public is getting sick and tired of the "gotcha" journalism ongoing. The rankings of newspapers, and the ratings of news shows continue to go down. The President's poll numbers are in the pits, but the media's poll numbers are even lower; another story they just refuse to report.
More sour grapes from the "selected not elected" liars.
In other words, Bush needs to dance to the pipers of his enemies, the DNC and the MSM, who manufacture and then breathlessly report administration scandals on a near hourly basis.
Look, the White House press office, the RNC, the relevant agency spokespersons, and frequently Bush himself--all regularly respond to these sorts of charges through interviews, press conferences, speeches, town-hall Q&As, background, news releases, etc. Their responses are fact-based and, most often, clearly refute the scandal allegations du jour. The MSM by and large simply chooses to ignore, distort, or bury these responses and the inconvenient facts they contain so as to continue the perpetual motion of their scandal manufacturing machine, thereby creating public perception problems for the White House.
While it's often true that the WH press office minus Ari has produced some groan-inducing stumble bum efforts, they sure as heck aren't responsible for the irresponsibility of the press, who willfully and spitefully choose to ignore their moral and ethical responsibilities to fairly and fully report the relevant facts of a given story.
Given that this willful misreporting and distortion seems to be a fact of life, Bush has decided not to expend his administration's short time in office engaged in a constant battle to "win" the news cycle of the day. Clinton's White House fought tooth and nail for eight years to win the 24-hr news cycle. And in the end to what end? Clinton won a thousand Pyrrhic victories while failing to accomplish much of any real longstanding substance. Worse, he fundamentally neglected to fulfill the sworn obligations of the office to which he was elected.
Bush came to office determined to avoid wasting precious time putting out media-generated scandal fires and instead focus his administration on achieving his agenda. In the magnified frenzy of misleading headlines, top-of-the-hour news reports, and instant conventional Beltway wisdom it often seems as though Bush is taking fatal blows. And that is no doubt especially dispiriting to those of us who support Bush or the larger goals of the party. Our view is often myopic, though, while Bush's is long term. He has wagered that history will be his judge, not today's MSM or the yapping-punditocracy's ephemeral opinions. It's tempting to react with high profile WH PR efforts to smack back at each and every one of the constant stream of MSM distortions, but ultimately that's a knee-jerk leap for fool's gold and Bush is no fool.
You may have served in the military, but you apparently missed the concept of chain-of-command, a fundamental principle. That you seemed to have missed how this plays out in the area of classification frankly casts you assertion that you served in doubt.
No matter where you served, no matter what subject matter the classified documents you were entrusted with, the AUTHORITY to classify them was military and ultimately rose through each commander above yours to the Commander-in-Chief. Similarly, the NIE was classified by the Director of the CIA, his boss THE PRESIDENT, delegated him that authority and as his boss was the higher authority who could order it declassified.
BTW, I graduated from MI Officer's Advanced course and in one position was a classified document custodian as well, so please don't tell me that its all magic and too complicated.
The President has the right to declassify anything anytime with a verbal order to release the information to one or more persons. Those persons do not have to be in the media, but they can be in the media.
He does not have to release this information to everyone. He can declassify and release information to anyone with his order to release the information. He does not have to fill out a form and have it filed and approved by a subordinate for the information to be declassified. If he says release it, the information is declassified.
It does not matter what the normal policy is. It does not matter if this or other presidents have issued presidential orders on releasing classified documents. The president can tell anyone anything and allow them to publish it. The fact that he did it makes it legal. Cheney can't do it, and certainly Libby couldnot do it. But the President can do it and many have.
In fact Clinton did the same exact thing after he bombed the aspirin factory. There was some criticism of Clinton for bombing what turned out to be a asperin factory. Clinton released to selected media the classified information which he used to order the bombing of the aspirin factory. That act declassified the released information. The Washington Post noted what Clinton had done and applauded it.
You may have listened to a press conference but that does not mean anything. There is one person that can change any presidential executive ruling and violate every presidential order ever made. That man is the current president.
In other words, Bush should let public opinion of him and the GOP be shaped by a lying media.
We disagree on what needs to be done 100%.
The MSM does regularly ignore refutations from the White House, so it's up to US to get this word out when it comes up in conversations with friends, water cooler chats, etc. Be prepared to refute those who spread the lies, even inadvertently because they might have heard it on the news. Be ready to explain what DE-classified means; that when the President ALLOWS the release of info, that means it's DEclassified, it does NOT mean he is releasing classified data.
Yes, presidents do what presidents do and the media does its thing to make Bush look bad. Bush didn't help himself or Libby re the way he handled this issue. Some just fail or refuse to see through the barrier of infatuation they hold for this guy.
"In this case, a "leak" relates to CLASSIFIED information. It has not been clarified as to whether the information was still classified when the leak happened or not. Declassification does have to take place BEFORE information can be released. I listened to a reporter hit McClellan with this exact question, and he was stumbling all over himself trying not to answer the question. I am afraid that Bush and buddies may have been caught on this one -- they sure are avoiding a plausible explanation to date...we continue to await their response." .
.
"You might want to familiarize yourself with Bush's own executive order relative to the PROCESSES that are to be followed for the declassification of classified information. As you read and learn you will not find anything that says the President is authorized to unilaterally disclose classified information, making it automatically unclassified, or anything similar. Again there are procedures to be followed and again, my question simply was, were they followed or not? Very objective and not biased. Just keeping it real. No one has yet to show any evidence or rules to the contrary. For your reading enjoyment and enlightenment." .
.
"You are trying way too hard. Where does it say it does not? The order applies to ALL that handle classified information, and initiate the classification or declassification processes. And it was drafted and executed by Bush and his administration. It simply demonstrates there are procedures to be followed." .
.
"Exactly. And if Bush, Cheney or whomever, applied the proper processes to declassify that information, then it was done appropriately. If not, then the opposite applies. That is the essence of the original question, not some attempt to hang Bush. For some reason, Bush or his assigns will NOT answer that question which is not a good position to take and gives the criminal MSM every opportunity to raise serious doubt."
You seem to be playing the obtuse card when it comes to Presidential Executive authority. President Bush has no "buddies" when it comes to exercising his authority. They all work for him... The Federal Constitution gives all Executive authority to the President of the United States. Period. There is no higher executive authority to which the President must answer. Period. All document classification happens at the behest of the President, or to those to whom he delegates such part of his authority as he sees fit. He retains the final authority - not subject to any "rules or regulations" in any fashion. Executive orders do NOT bind the President of the United States, nor can executive orders of a previous President bind the sitting President - any more than could one Congress bind a future Congress (without the use of the Amendment process) to its rulings.
If the President of the United States wished to de-classify and publish the plans to the W-88 nuclear warhead he would be within his authority to do so - no matter its harm to the security interests of the United States. No authority on earth could prevent him for doing so, no regulation - no rule. The only recourse that the Congress of the United States would have at that point is the "power of the purse" to punish the Executive Branch by with-holding funds or to pursue an impeachment strategy. No matter what course of action would be taken by the Congress - they would be after the fact and could not prevent the act itself. Such is the sole power of the Executive Branch.
Any subordinate who gains authority under the Executive Branch gains such authority by its delegation from Head of the Executive Branch. Any procedures which must be followed by such a subordinate is because he acts under authority, not in his own right. The President of the United States is under no such authority - because when it comes to the Executive Branch - he is the SOLE authority as delineated by the Federal Constitution. Unlike the Congress and the Courts where power and authority is dispersed, the power of the Executive is concentrated in ONE person - the President of the United States and he alone exercises and defines such power subject only to the restraint of the other two Branches of the Federal government.
To give lie to your "declassification authority" thesis in which President Bush has violated his own executive orders I give you President Clinton... One of my next door neighbors here in Northern Virginia is a career lawyer for the Justice Department of the United States. He is the head of the Office of the Pardon Attorney of the Justice Department. This Office was instituted to perform the research and provide guidelines, procedures and legal recommendations to the President of the United States in support of his use of the pardon power granted him by the Federal Constitution. When the last days of the Clinton Administration arrived, President Clinton followed none of the legal procedures, rules and regulations for granting pardons which were set in place at the Justice Department when he granted convicted fugitive Marc Rich his pardon. My neighbor was doing some yard-work about six weeks later when I asked him about the Marc Rich pardon - he said that the pardon granted by President Clinton did not go through the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department - it came directly from the President. I asked why the President did not go through the procedures and regulations of his Justice Department. This career lawyer just shrugged his shoulders and said "he doesn't have to - he's the President".
End of case.
dvwjr
Thank you for taking the time to follow up...
"President Bush needs to get out on this immediately and explain the difference between declassifying documents and having subordinates leak still-classified docs."
The public will figure it out with the help of freepers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.