CIA Leak Sees Political Reversal of Roles

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- In the mystery of the CIA operative's leaked identity, the script is familiar, but the political roles are reversed.

This time, unlike during the Clinton era, the Democrats clamor for an outside investigation to probe sensational-sounding charges involving the White House. And the Republicans argue the Justice Department is capable of handling the matter on its own.

"You have special counsels if you think the administration is trying to cover up or obstruct justice or is not interested in this issue," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. "It is quite obvious to me that the White House and the administration are very upset about this issue," added the Texan -- who once pressed for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fund-raising abuses by President Clinton.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-cia-leak-analysis,0,55648.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[mbperrin]

1. Well sure, Tom, fund-raising is IMPORTANT,

but someone's life? Nah.

[Lindsay]

2. Dear Mr. DeLay,

It's quite obvious to me that the WH (and the Justice Department) paid no attention to the matter between July 14 and last weekend.

Wanna tell me again how concerned they were?

[Sinistrous]

5. Excellent point!

The stunning silence from the WH after the publishing of Novak's article makes the current mewling about "cooperation" seem disingenuous, at best.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Glad they are comparing it to MonicaGate..that MUST mean it warrants

a special prosecutor..by their own comparison.

[Nottingham]

4. Tommy this was concerning National Security!

The best part is I can't wait to see what the DOJ comes up with cause its probably pretty obvious where the crime is! :bounce:

[neuvocat]

6. The CIA has turned against Bush.

The Bush clan is starting to see its waning days.

[snippy]

8. Whistle Ass started annoying the CIA since before day one.

Whistle Ass was talking about replacing George Tenet in December 2001. Since the CIA is supposed to be an independent agency this irritated some career people. Poppy Bush stepped in and slapped Whistle Ass down.

Whistle Ass and others belittled the August 6, 2001 CIA briefing given to Whistle Ass which warned of a huge, soon to occur, terrorist attack against the US, possibly involving hijacked airplanes. Whistle Ass claimed that someone from the CIA traveled to Crawford, Texas to present a 15 minute briefing on the historical practices of Al Qaeda. And then Whistle Ass claimed that we had no warning of 9/11.

Cheney and Scooter Libby kept going to the CIA during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq and pressuring analysts to reach conclusions that Whistle Ass wanted even though the intel did not support those conclusions.

Blaming faulty intel, Whistle Ass and Weasel Ass (Rumsfeld) claimed that no one had any idea that the fedayeen Saddam would resist the invasion and would fight a guerilla war afterward. This, in fact, is exactly what the CIA had predicted would occur.

And then Whistle Ass blamed George Tenet for the 16 words.

And the CIA had had enough.

And then Whistle Ass gave the CIA an opportunity, in the form of the Wilson affair, to fight back just a little and reassert its independence.

[kainah]

7. This is the AP story that is on the newswires

and being picked up across the country for front pages tomorrow. It has a very lame headline in most of the papers and the general tone is, "Haven't we had enough of this stuff?" There is some meat buried in the story but, in general, I believe it is written to suggest that "this is just like the Clinton scandals and aren't we all over that by now?" :grr: