Posted on 07/20/2004 12:31:29 PM PDT by areafiftyone
Bad news for John Kerry: In its shamefully inadequate coverage of the Sandy Berger scandal, even the New York Times today admitted that he was an adviser to the Democrat presidential candidate.
Terry McAuliffe's favorite propaganda sheet, of course, merely mentioned the connection in passing, but fortunately Fox News Channel and other media are digging below the surface.
"There's an ethic here that is of strict discipline, of not letting the fact you're working on a political campaign start to color your actions when it comes to national security," Hunter said.
"From now on, until the election, everything like this will have a spotlight put on it, examined very carefully," Lott said.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., called the news "surprising." He told Fox that "unless we learn otherwise, I have to assume that what Sandy said was right that any removal of documents was inadvertent. But it is serious."
Asked whether Kerry should dump Berger, the former rival said, "That's up to John Kerry, but I'm sure he will stay on the team unless there's some charges that are proven that leads Senator Kerry to do otherwise."
"The documents that Sandy supposedly took were copies. There are copies elsewhere throughout the Archives and elsewhere in Washington, so it's not like he was trying to cover something up," Goodstein maintained to FNC.
"That's an essential question that needs to be answered from the Kerry campaign: Did they benefit from documents that they should not have had?"
Oops: Kerry's campaign is already distancing itself from Berger. Handlers are emphasizing that the former national security bigwig was just "an informal adviser," not a paid official with the campaign.
As for Berger's obvious angling for an invite to be CIA director in case of a Democrat victory in November, you can forget all about that now.
I don't know about that. These assholes are just brazen enough to do it anyway.
"Mr. Beger is a Patriot that served with distinction under President Clinton. He'll be a valuable member of our team. Nothing was proven in the documents flap back in July." Etc.
It's like Bush asking that black reporter with headphones if he was listening to rap. Isn't that just the sort of remark you'd expect a Republican to make?*
And Sandy Berger, at the very least, is now marked as someone who doesn't take national security seriously, and doesn't understand why it should be taken seriously. Isn't that just how you'd expect a Democrat to treat classifed information?
In that sense, it may actually be worse for Kerry if Berger had no criminal intent. It might actually be easier to explain away a crime as a good man going bad. If he just didn't care, then he obviously didn't care as NSA, either. And if a top Democratic national-security wonk doesn't care about national security, then how can we trust these people with the White House, no matter what Kerry says about Berger?
The point is that Berger used some of the puloined documents to make a policy statement for Kerry. In addition, this is becoming a pattern for Kerry, one "unpaid advisor after another has been exposed as a liar. Is this kind of person that Kerry would surround himself with as president? It shows a complete lack of judgement. You could even go back as far as Kerry's associates in his V.V. Against the War, as note that he surrounded himself with phonies and liars, even then.
Even I am starting to see which posts are from a Newsmax article. And the headline usually leads one to believe disaster is only moments away from the subject at hand....which is never the case when the article has been read.
Now, to actually read the article.
That is why the major push on lying about no connection between Iraq/9-11, to keep the spotlight from Wille.
Kerry has his own treason to worry about in Nam. This is an issue for the Congressional elections! Every dem crapweasel Congressman has lied about there being no connection! We should now be able to prove there was one and that Willie was involved. EVERY DEM CONGRESSMAN MUST BE ASKED "DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE LYING ABOUT 'NO CONECTION' WHEN YOU WERE LYING?"
We must not allow this thing to disappear!!
Moi, I Love your post. Eet ees most sanguine, mon pere. Reelee,
eet ees about zee monay--always zee power and zee monay.
Guess you noticed French is not my second language.
vaudine
Let's be clear on this. According to the news accounts there are two kinds of paper involved -- Berger's personal notes that he took whild reading the documents, and the documents themselves. The notes are what he stuffed into his clothing. The documents went out in his briefcase. It is illegal to remove either frmm the room.
Please not that his "categorical denial" applies only to stuffing "documents" into his socks. Of course he didn't stuff the "documents" into his pants and socks. They would have been too bulky. The documents went into his case.
And the spin begins - again!!
Most crooks will claim that their thievery was inadvertant.....AFTER they are caught!
.....Did anyone check Hillary's office? They're probably between her old billing records and the FBI files.......
Naah! Fatboy Greaseball Richardson has the missing docs.
He's tasked to plant them behind a Xerox machine in Los Alamos next week when no-one's looking!
How can one ACCIDENTLY stuff top secret classified documents into your SOCKS????????
"The documents that Sandy supposedly took were copies. There are copies elsewhere throughout the Archives and elsewhere in Washington,..."
Just like the assertion that lots of people already knew that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA was met with a resounding "That's not the point!"
Apparently now it is.
When the Kerry camp was asked about the Senator not taking the daily briefings offered by the WH (and all the while the Senator found time to attend a fund raiser and lewd-Bush-bash):
"The Senator has his own intelligence and security advisers who brief him regularly."
Is Mr. Berger one of these 'advisors'?
Was Mr. Kerry being briefed based on pilfered private papers?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/169143p-147763c.html
"The Democratic front-runner assured the group that, contrary to a speech he gave in December, he wouldn't seek out former President Jimmy Carter or former Secretary of State James Baker as his envoys, sources said...Instead, Kerry offered up the names of Sandy Berger, Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross."
In another mention of Berger, still on johnkerry.com, Berger is referred to as "Kerry foreign policy advisor Samuel R. 'Sandy; Berger." Not "informal" advisor as the press are faithfully reciting today.
That is at www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/clips/news_2004_0308.html
A third mention of Berger on johnkerry.com remains, comparing Condi Rice unfavorably to Berger, who waived immunity in testifying before the 9/11 commission.
I believe the Whitehouse put the kabash on the declassification. I'll have to go back. The committee of course gave Ashcroft a hard time but it was nothing compared what they TRIED to do to Condi!!
No, it's like this: He was putting the sock in his pants (trying to imitate Gore on the cover of Rolling Stone) but it wasn't enough so he needed to stuff the sock with the documents. That's his story and he's sticking to it.
That is exactly what I think!
Bingo! The timing of this DOES smell and the odor is from a pink pant suit. The nomination process is not complete and it is not logical for the republicans to release this surprise now. It is in the interest of the Keeper of the FBI files for taint the Kerry camp right now. Sandy is loyal to her highness (or at least fearful), and acted with incredible stupidity. There is more to this. IMHO.
Here's some key media to contact/freep:
I got these addresses from Media Research Center,
http://www.mediaresearch.org/MediaAddresses/mediaaddresses.asp#If%20the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
e-mail: conedit@ajc.com
Houston Chronicle
e-mail: viewpoints@chron.com
Miami Herald
e-mail: HeraldEd@herald.com
The New York Times
letters@nytimes.com
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
e-mail: letters@post-gazette.com
USA Today
e-mail: editor@usatoday.com
The Wall Street Journal
e-mail: letter.editor@edit.wsj.com
The Washington Post
e-mail: Letterstoed@washpost.com
The Washington Times
e-mail: wtnews@wt.infi.net
I don't know about the rest of you but I don't inadvertently stuff things in my pants. I mean this is not the way one would typically carry papers.
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