Harman: Double Standard on Leaks
Jane Harman is serious about intelligence issues but she said something Sunday on
Fox News Sunday
that tarnished her reputation just a bit.
Libby talking to reporters about Wilson's lies is what any administration would've done. In fact, the Clinton administration would've savaged Wilson had he done that to Clinton.
It's also a bit disengenuous to characterize the Bush administration's correcting the record on Wilson's allegations as "discrediting political enemies". Letting a liar's lie go uncontested when we're trying to build a 'rebuilding coalition' is foolish.
It's already obvious that Democrats plan to characterize this as a double standard on leakers but that won't play with America because they see the difference. People know that President Bush's setting the record straight on Wilson's 'findings' is alot different than a political operative in the CIA subverting the President's policies.
Kerry's statement is utterly transparent. I doubt that anyone with common sense thinks that Kerry isn't playing politics with the situation.
Cross-posted at California Conservative
Posted Tuesday, April 25, 2006 12:29 AM
No comments.
"I don't know this woman, and I do not condone leaks of classified information," said Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, referring to the firing of Mary McCarthy. Harman added that "while leaks are wrong, I think it is totally wrong for our president in secret to selectively declassify certain information and empower people in his White House to leak it to favored reporters so that they can discredit political enemies," she said on Fox News Sunday. Harman was referring to White House staff members disclosing the classified identity of CIA case officer Valerie Plame in 2003.If Harman is upset by the President's declassification of the NIE, then maybe she should first be upset that Joe Wilson was lying through his teeth about the President lying us into war. Had Harman and other responsible Democrats shamed Wilson, the declassification wouldn't have happened. Instead, the Democrats chose to play politics with that in hopes of recapturing the White House.
Libby talking to reporters about Wilson's lies is what any administration would've done. In fact, the Clinton administration would've savaged Wilson had he done that to Clinton.
It's also a bit disengenuous to characterize the Bush administration's correcting the record on Wilson's allegations as "discrediting political enemies". Letting a liar's lie go uncontested when we're trying to build a 'rebuilding coalition' is foolish.
It's already obvious that Democrats plan to characterize this as a double standard on leakers but that won't play with America because they see the difference. People know that President Bush's setting the record straight on Wilson's 'findings' is alot different than a political operative in the CIA subverting the President's policies.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) echoed Harman, saying, "A CIA agent has an obligation to uphold the law, and clearly leaking is against the law. And nobody should leak." But he added: "If you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that, at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you...put on that person."In other words, it's wrong for a CIA agent to break the law but that doesn't mean that a liberal won't find a way to rationalize it if, by breaking the law, it serves the 'greater good' of undercutting a Republican president.
Kerry's statement is utterly transparent. I doubt that anyone with common sense thinks that Kerry isn't playing politics with the situation.
Cross-posted at California Conservative
Posted Tuesday, April 25, 2006 12:29 AM
No comments.
