I was writing a post on Cynthia McKinney’s theatrics, but the news has been gushing in that President Bush authorized the “leaking” of secret information to the media.
From my quick review, the most authoritative and I think the first writer to break the news was Joshua Gerstein at the New York Sun.
So, I scratched the McKinney post.
Suffice it to say, however, that if she was this Palestinian Minister, she might have something to complain about.
I have to dig in further to what is actually factual about the Bush leak authorization and will do that later.
What is important to recognize now, however, is that our secrecy-obsessed President got cavalier with state secrets and sent his staff to pump cherry-picked material into the nation’s biggest and most respected news operations.
I have not read the statute carefully about whether the President has the automatic ability, in his person, to declassify material and authorize its release. That needs to be looked into.
In the Plame case, Bush said that he would fire anyone involved with leaking national security information. I can hear Jon Stewart asking the key question tonight, “So President Bush, do you plan to fire yourself?”
But it does demonstrate something about the culture of the White House, particularly with regard to the Valerie Plame leak.
I wonder how Russ Feingold’s censure measure is going to fare now. I think things just improved for the Wisconsin Senator’s initiative.
More to come.
— Steve Clemons
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