"Hey, I resent that! Kerry is a gun grabber!"
Posted on 07/20/2004 6:27:11 PM PDT by beebuster2000
WASHINGTON, July 20 — A former national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, quit his role as informal adviser to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry today amid a clamor over his improper handling of classified documents.
"Mr. Berger does not want any issue surrounding the 9/11 commission to be used for partisan purposes," Lanny Breuer, Mr. Berger's attorney, told The Associated Press late this afternoon. "With that in mind he has decided to step aside as an informal adviser to the Kerry campaign until this matter is resolved."
The decision to step aside came after a day in which Republicans zeroed in on the disclosure that Mr. Berger, who was President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, removed classified documents from the National Archives last year. Some Republicans wondered aloud today whether Mr. Berger had used the papers to help Senator Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Mr. Berger's mishandling of the documents, which were related to terrorism and which he took from the National Archives in preparation for his testimony before the 9/11 commission, seemed today to become a bigger problem for the Kerry campaign almost by the hour — and at the worst possible time, as Mr. Kerry is hoping to gain a big lift by next week's Democratic National Convention in Boston.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
More likely Edwards, I'd say. Even the Dems are not dumb enough to nominate Hillary.
I wonder if this could be the work of Hillary? Maybe her October surprise that came early in July. She could sink Kerry giving her a clean shot at the 2008 Presidency. THAT would not surprise me.
That quote is such a hoot. The 911 Commission has been based on bitter partisanship and Bush hatred from the beginning.
Best I can tell "informal advisors" are ones who work for free in hopes of getting a cabinet position later. (I think Rand Beers is on the payroll) Berger might just have worked a little too hard...
I think any use of Hillary on the ticket would be suicide. I'm guessing they'd go Edwards/Fla Senator.
The same way they "play(ed) this exactly the way they should" when an aide brought forward the memo saying the Democrats planned to use the national security stuff for political purposes? The Pubbies refused to do busines for a few days, but didn't push it.
Note the Rat media irony of Bergler now being labeled a
passing advisor, sort of in a way to Kerry while last week
Vice President Cheney connected and smeared by inference
to a doctor he had seen ,who wrote himself extra
prescriptions
Mr. Berger is the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation, not the target of one. The distinction is crucial. A subject is a person whose activities are of interest to investigators; a target is a person who might be charged with actual wrongdoing.
"Now, I don't know what happened to these documents after they were put in Mr. Berger's pants," Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said today. "It's been reported in the press that these documents related to homeland security at our airports and at our seaports. And it's very interesting to note that those are two areas where Senator Kerry has been very critical of our Homeland Security Department."
A spokesman for the commission, Al Felzenberg, told The Associated Press today that Mr. Berger's actions would have no effect on the work of the panel, which Mr. Felzenberg said had had access to all the materials it needed.
While Democrats had seemed inclined to give Mr. Berger the benefit of the doubt and accept his explanation that the incident with the documents was inadvertent, Republicans were decidedly less charitable.
WE were charitable with bill clinton and look what happened
He killed a Camel and an aspirine factory a box of cuban cigars and a intern [well he didnt kill the intern !] but the respect for office of the President went into the toilet !
This kind of "stepping aside" announcement device is simply public notice that the campaign has decided that this guy is tainted, and that they are walking far enough away from him to not get splattered when the big hammer hits him.
"I don't think this could have appeared in the NY Times w/o the Clintons permission"
I agree. This is too easy. Berger knew he was being watched and would be caught eventually. When the archives employees went to Bruce Lindsey first and not the FBI, Berger had to do it again to get the FBI involved. Something doesn't smell right here. What's going on??? Maybe I'm too cynical.
I doubt this'll hurt Kerry that much.
"Hey, I resent that! Kerry is a gun grabber!"
Thanks for the ping!
Do you think Berger will be charged?
How does one 'inadvertently' stuff documents in one's socks? Berger is a lawyer, a former National Security advisor to the leader of the free world, etc. Oh, I forget, everyone in the Clinton administration was 'brilliant' until they did something like stuff classified documents in their socks. Or lose several laptops from the State Dept that had sensitive information on them (accidentally, of course, under Madeline Albright.) Or can't find documents for some investigation and then they magically turn up on a table somewhere in the living quarters in the White House (PIAPs.) Once maybe, but there is a pattern of behavior.
True.
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