In the last post, I talked about the practical problems of the White House argument that Bush can leak [tag]classified[/tag] information because, as [tag]president[/tag], he can declassify anything he wants. In this post, let’s look at the political problems associated with this defense.
Even if the practice is legal, and it very well may be, the revelation that [tag]Bush[/tag] personally and directly authorized Scooter [tag]Libby[/tag] to leak portions of the classified [tag]National Intelligence Estimate[/tag] to the New York Times is still a political fiasco of the highest order.
We are, after all, talking about a president who has vehemently condemned leaks, particularly of sensitive national security materials, for the better part of his presidency. As Joe Conason put it, “[Bush] claimed to consider the leaking of classified information to be a matter of the utmost seriousness. And he let his press secretary insist repeatedly that the White House had absolutely no idea how this terrible thing had happened.”
Slate’s John Dickerson, among others, highlighted the president’s obvious [tag]hypocrisy[/tag].
It’s one thing to declassify information; it’s another thing to present information to a reporter as though it were [tag]classified[/tag] to preserve the shadow authenticity that comes with a leak. Bush wanted to have the information out there but not have to account for it or explain it.
All presidents engage in this hypocrisy, but Bush has made it Texas-sized by putting on such a show about leaks during his time in office. He’s done everything short of forming a Department of Anti-Leaking. The most recent example has been the attack on the New York Times for printing leaks about the NSA wiretap operation, but President Bush has been at it for years. In October 2001, after reading a Washington Times story that described terrorist camps in Afghanistan that the CIA and Pentagon had targeted for destruction, Bush told aides, “an act of treason was committed in the newspaper this morning.”
When the NYT reports on a national-security leak Bush doesn’t like, it’s [tag]treason[/tag]; when the NYT reports on a national-security leak Bush does like, it’s an effective political strategy. Got it.
Here’s the Bush comment that should, and probably will, be shown over and over again in the coming weeks and months.
“I don’t know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the [tag]appropriate action[/tag]. […]
“I want to tell you something — leaks of classified information are a bad thing…. I’ve spoken out consistently against them and I want to know who the leakers are.”
Well, now we know the president was apparently one of them, and the White House has probably been lying the whole time. Do you suppose Bush is ready to take the “appropriate action” against himself? And what do you suppose that might be?