So, the NY Sun scoops all the big guys, with the news that Bush "authorized the leak" in the Scooter Libby case. And everyone is playing "gotcha" with this:
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information," Bush said on Sept. 30, 2003, two months after Libby made what he says was a presidentially authorized disclosure of such information. "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action," Bush said.
Bush de-classified info. and members of his Administration used it. Libby first --it's common practice to give journalists "exclusives"-- and then the Prez himself 10 days later. And then this statement a full two months' later. I'm looking very hard for a leak. You know: where someone gives out classified information inappropriately.
As a follow-up to this post (if only there were a war), I got to thinking about the big stories of the past 12 months:
1. Plame-gate.
MSM Version: High Muckety-Mucks in the Bush Administration think nothing of blowing the cover of our most valuable covert agents to trick us into war.Actual story: A classified memo was de-classified so that it could be provenwithout leaking that the husband of a non-covert agent was lying through his teeth about whether Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire uranium yellow-cake.
2. Elections A-plenty.
MSM Version: The world hates George Bush and America, and nobody wants democracy in the Middle East, as will be proven with the spectacular failure of elections in Afghanistan & Iraq, the defeat of Mr. Bush & all his allies at the ballot box, and the inevitable passing of the EU Constitution.Actual story: Re-election of Howard, Blair & Bush; defeat of the EU Constitution; amazing elections in Afghanistan & twice in Iraq. (Aznar was defeated, but I'd argue not because of the war, but because he lied to his people about who bombed them.)
3. Hurricane Katrina
MSM Version: 10,000 dead. Rapes & riots and frozen bodies in the Superdome. Where is Bush?Actual story: Bush begs for evacuations beforehand, against Governor's wishes. Dithering of Gov. Blanco and. . . .those buses. Fewer than 1000 dead.
4. Bush's National Guard Service. (Whoops.)
5. Civil War In Iraq. (Whoops Again.)
6. Death of John Paul II Well, he really did die. Score one for them.