Posted on 11/09/2003 7:57:07 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Part of what's feeding the bitterness between Democrats and Republicans in the "Memogate" scandal that engulfed Sen. Pat Roberts' investigation of pre-Iraq war intelligence last week is another intelligence scandal that made headlines for a few days last summer, then faded away: the outing of Valerie Plame. Plame was the CIA operative named in a July column by conservative commentator Robert Novak detailing the search for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Because her husband is Joseph Wilson, a retired diplomat who had criticized the Bush administration after an Iraqi-weapons-search trip to Niger, Democrats--and Wilson--suspected that Plume's identity was leaked, potentially putting her life in danger, as a message that Bush would play hardball with administration critics. Democrats called for a congressional investigation, but Bush insisted the matter could be handled within the administration. Though the investigation is ongoing, the identity of who leaked her name hasn't been found. Bush himself has expressed doubt it ever will be. Now, as a leak of Democratic political motives behind the Iraq intelligence investigation heats up, Republicans are outraged. But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he suspects a double standard. Plame's name "was obviously leaked in an effort to get even with Ambassador Wilson... who questioned how the war came to be in Iraq," Reid said. "Where is the hue and cry about this? I've been terribly disappointed over the past few days" in GOP conduct, he said. Republicans have responded that the two matters are fundamentally different. One involves a White House leak into a past incident and is being investigated. The other involves sabotage of an ongoing investigation and currently isn't. Roberts said he hasn't followed every detail of the Plame case because the administration is handling it. "But there is more to be told" about it, he said. "It's a very serious matter." The past two weeks have been some of Roberts' stormiest in more than 22 years in Congress. But it's also had its lighter, or maybe just weirder, moments. The Thursday before Halloween, Roberts was confronted in his office by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a fellow member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence who decided to dress for the holiday as--Pat Roberts. Wearing a paper mask of Roberts' face, a bald head wig and a Wildcat-purple robe, Hagel also presented Roberts with a framed portrait of Roberts. The portrait featured devil horns and a goatee doodled on the Kansan's face, along with the message: "To My Scary Kansas Friend Pat Roberts, Happy Halloween, 2003. Your Monster Friend to the North, Chuck Hagel." Hagel, who dresses as a well-known Washingtonian every year, then walked with Roberts to the Senate floor for a vote, later kissing Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., on the cheek while dressed as Roberts. Memorable, but strange, Roberts said. "I was stunned," he said. "But I was disappointed that he sent the mask back" after Halloween, he said. "I thought (Hagel) would keep it in case he wanted to appear dashing and handsome and mature."
Totally wrong! Confidentiality of sources is very frustrating, but both of these "leaks" benefited Conservatives, and it's the 'Rats--who've splashed so many anonymous leaks themselves--who are demanding the sources.
Question: How likely is it that Memo-gate would have come to light if the source of the leak thought it likely that he/she would be exposed?
Republicans have responded that the two matters are fundamentally different. One involves a White House leak into a past incident and is being investigated. The other involves sabotage of an ongoing investigation and currently isn't.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
First, leave it to Reid to state something as "obvious" when it is NOT. It is not obvious that, regarding Plame, somebody "leaked in an effort to get even with Ambassador Wilson". No, more likely it was to explain why the hell Wilson was sent to Niger.
And then the reporter says "one involves a White House leak". Well, that has not been established, now, has it? The answer is no. In fact, Novak says it was not the WH.
But anything to divert from the memo and to draw these idiotic and treacherous "everybody does it" lines.
One, the Plame Affair, is the proverbial tempest in a teapot.
The other, the Intel Committee memo, attempts to make partisan political hay out of a matter of national security, gives aid and comfort to our enemies and is thus perilously akin to treason.
Yeah, I guess they are "fundamentally different".
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