White House Cracking Down on Media Leaks, May Arrest Itself

A terrible thing happened to the Bush administration recently: Citizens found out what the White House has been doing. Leaks about the NSA domestic spying and the CIA torture flights have put the White House on edge; it is so tiresome, after all, to have to explain why these things aren’t illegal. The White House theory that President Bush is now the living law of the land, based on his unlimited wartime powers, was best summed up when Alberto Gonzalez was asked about any new Congressional laws that might be passed on these subjects. He repeated several times that the White House would gladly listen to any Congressional ideas before deciding how to proceed.
The new White House strategy is to push back. It is actively going after members of the media who reported these stories. As Gonzalez implied recently, there is much more to the NSA domestic spying than has been reported. If all the facts about what this government has been up to were known, it might be impossible to keep the lid on. The “I” word for President Bush might go from “Idiot” to “Impeachment.”
This puts Dick Cheney’s recent interview with Brit Hume of FOX news into context. Cheney appeared on friendly turf to explain how he had come to shoot someone in the face with a shotgun. Brit was so soft and deferential, I believe Cheney was actually sitting in his lap. How loving was it? After the interview the Vice President complained of sore nipples.
They also covered the tricky problem of White House leaks of classified material to the New York Times as part of the marketing campaign for the war in Iraq – specifically leaks coming out of the office of one Richard Cheney. The groundwork for a legal defense was set with Cheney musing about his ability to declassify information. Of course, he wasn’t quite sure, but he believed he had the power to do that. My prediction is that the cover story will be, that the mere act of leaking classified information by the Vice President, declassifies it. Otherwise, you have the White House sounding all morally outraged about behavior the Bush administration engaged in itself, in a successful strategy to use 9/11 outrage to get us into a disastrous war in Iraq.
So what will happen with the flow of leaks? I have a new appreciation for the staggering level of incompetence coming out of the Bush-Cheny braintrust. In addition to being power-mad, chicken hawks, they are also profoundly bad at decision-making. They never even consider trying good government in the traditional sense.
That’s why I’m predicting the leaks will continue, if not accelerate. There are two groups here: The media and the White House. One of them is on the ropes, and it’s not the media.
Link below:
White House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks