Friday, December 21, 2007

Your White House Press Corps

Tucked into Dan Froomkin's Washington Post piece about Bush's press conference (during which he neither denied White House involvement in the destruction of the CIA tapes, nor even bothered to say it was wrong), came this little gem:
It's all highly reminiscent of Bush's no-comment strategy during the investigation of the White House role in the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent. Then, as now, Bush could have demanded that his aides tell him what they had done. But he obviously didn't want to hear it.

And now, as then, Bush can insist that he wants to wait for others to determine the facts, and then refuse to comment while an investigation is ongoing -- until the press corps loses interest in the matter.

Today, since former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby has dropped his appeal in the Plame case, the coast was clear for reporters to ask Bush any of the many important, unanswered questions about that case. But nobody did.
The Kewl Kidz have decided that the outing of an undercover CIA agent, who was working to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to Iran, doesn't matter. The judge threw out the lawsuit because breaking laws and undermining national security is just part of the Administration's job. Scooter Libby shouldn't have had to go to jail because he's just too good a guy to have to actually suffer consequences for breaking laws and undermining national security. And all those questions about breaking laws and undermining national security that the Scottys and Tonys and Danas told us would have to wait until the legal process had ended? Well, it's holiday season, and who wants to risk being thrown off Sally Quinn's guest list?

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