OOOPS!!! There it is.....
newsmax.com
Friday August 18, 2000; 11:37 PM EDT
Outrage Over Grand Jury Leak Backfires on Dems, Media
Democrats and their media mouthpieces had egg on their faces late Friday, when a judge on the panel overseeing Independent Counsel Robert Ray revealed that it was he and not Ray who leaked news that a new grand jury has been impaneled to investigate President Clinton on Sexgate charges.
From the moment the Associated Press broke the story Thursday afternoon, Democrats howled that the Bush campaign was in cahoots with the Office of Independent Counsel, which they said had leaked the story to deliberately embarass Vice President Al Gore on the night of his convention acceptance speech.
Never mind that Robert Ray is a Democrat who earlier this year passed up the opportunity to indict Hillary Clinton on Filegate and Travelgate charges - or the fact that there wasn't a shred of evidence linking Ray to the leak.
But rather than wait for the facts to come in, Democrats leapt at the chance to slander the independent counsel:
"The timing of the leak reeks to high heaven," said White House spokesman Jake Siewert. "Given the record of the Office of Independent Counsel, the timing is hardly surprising."
"The timing just absolutely stinks," complained former White House counsel Jack Quinn. "And the American people are not going to be distracted by it."
"To have a prosecutor so involved in the political process reminds one not of America but of a Third World country," an outraged Sen. Charles Schumer told Newsday, adding, "For it to break on the biggest night of (Gore's) political career is a shot below the belt."
Democrat political consultant Bill Carrick was beside himself, charging that "either these prosecutors are the most malicious bunch of people that ever lived, or they're so dumb that they should just be disbarred for plain political stupidity."
Not to be outdone, network anchormen Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw peppered their convention coverage Thursday night with complaints about the timing of the grand jury news.
"You don't have to be a cynic to note that this has all the earmarks of a carefully orchestrated, politically motivated leak," Rather reported later on CBSNews.com.
"The Republican-backed Robert Ray is sponsored by a three-judge panel that must periodically decide whether Ray's investigation should continue. This panel features two federal judges backed by the Jesse Helms wing of the Republican Party."
Rather's investigative instincts notwithstanding, the leak, it turned out, came from the third judge, Robert Cudahy, who was appointed by President Carter.
Without a doubt, apologies to Mr. Ray are in order from all concerned. Whether they'll be forthcoming is another matter altogether. |
