Why do I hate party politics
--posted by Tony Garcia on 12/31/2005
The story about Scooter Libby boiled down to this: Someone leaked information that MAYBE was illegal to leak.
The latest story about the wiretaps is boiling down to this: Someone leaked information that MAYBE was illegal to leak.
The reactions are the same...one party wants an investigation and the other is silent.
What the hell is the difference? NONE.
So the Scooter Libby story had the Democrats screaming for an investigation. Holier-than-thou in nature, they bitched about an illegal act (the leaking of information that MAY have been illegal to leak) had occurred and dammit, someone should fry for that. The resulting message of the leak, a conflict of interest by Joseph Wilson and the CIA who pushed for Wilson to be sent to Niger. The fact that Valerie Plame was both an employee of the CIA and married to Wilson MIGHT have been an important detail behind Wilson's appointment.
And the wire tap story has the Republicans screaming for an investigation. Holier-than-thou in nature, they are bitching about an illegal act (the leaking of information that MAY have been illegal to leak) has occurred and dammit, someone should fry for that. The resulting message of the leak, there are wiretaps occurred for intelligence gathering (not prosecuting).
The Democrat response to the wire tap story: focus on the resulting message from the leak and illegal acts in this matter don't matter.
The Replican response to the Wilson leak: focus on the resulting message from the leak and illegal acts in this matter don't matter. To be fair, AFTER indictments came out some said those crimes should be prosecuted...but that was not said DURING the investigation.
The truth is both stories should be focused on AND both matters should be investigated AND all people involved in leaking illegal information should be prosecuted.
Right and wrong has nothing to do with the party a person is in. I wish the parties would learn that.
3 Comments:
There is an important difference between the two events that you don't mention. The wiretap leak case involved leaking information about intelligence collection at a time of war and may endanger the ability of the U.S. government to protect us.
The Valerie Plame case didn't involve the war on terror and didn't handcuff efforts to protect America, as Valerie Plame's role in the CIA as an effective agent was gone long before the Novak column (her effectiveness as an agent was destroyed when she was named as Joe Wilson's husband in the "Who's Who in America" book.
See, you are the epitome of partisanship.
There was a leak in both cases. It was, at the time of the leak, believed to be information which is illegal to leak.
Period.
Tony - you are dead on with this one. There are examples of this sort of thing all the time.
The attacks on "activist judges" are selective in the same way. I think what most people mean by "activist judges" - are judges who rule in a way that a person disagrees with.
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