Saturday, February 19, 2005
Joe Biden (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Senate and House Judiciary Committees Should Investigate Gannongate Immediately
The Guardian [UK] Says That a Scandal Similar to Gannongate, Involving a Democratic Administration, Would "Threaten a Democratic Presidency"
By ADVOCATE STAFF
[The following is a rush partial transcript of a conversation between Joe Biden (D-DE), Democratic Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Bill Maher, host of the television show "Real Time with Bill Maher." Robin Williams, the well-known actor and comedian, was also present during the interview].
MAHER: Lord knows I get no joy out of saying the White House has ties to gay prostitution. Alright, I guess I get a little joy out of it. But let me ask, seriously...
ROBIN WILLIAMS [knocking the table in front of him and assuming a fake voice]: "Karl, are you awake? Karl, open the door!" "Who is it?"
MAHER: I mean, now, we have two Washington insiders from either party here...
WILLIAMS: "Insider" is not a word you use right now.
MAHER: I want to just ask this question. If this was the Clinton White House and this story broke, tell me an angry mob with torches would not be involved. Why do the Republicans get a pass on this stuff, when you know this is impeachable with the other party?
BIDEN: The press. The bottom line is that, why isn't every major network in the country investigating a security breach? Forget anything else. How could the F.B.I....seventeen years I was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member, I read more F.B.I. reports than I ever wanted to know. How could that happen and no one have any idea who this guy was? Forget everything else, assume he went in there and he was a saint. How could that be? We should know that.
There should be, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate should be investigating it, the House Judiciary Committee should be investigating it. And if it were the other party in charge, it would be investigated.
MAHER: Sounds like you have your work cut out for you when you get back to Washington.
BIDEN: But by the way, one of the problems with there being not a single fora available, is that you can't call a hearing. I can't--I'm on the Judiciary Committee, I can't go back and call a hearing. Only the Chairman of the Committee can call a hearing.
....
MAHER: How much was Whitewater, a hundred grand? Clinton got a haircut, that was a big issue? It's amazing, the way the Republicans can make something out of nothing, and the Democrats can't make anything out of something.
[The following is a rush partial transcript of a conversation between the Emmy Award-winning co-editor of CBS's "60 Minutes," Lesley Stahl, and Bill Maher, host of the television show "Real Time with Bill Maher"].
STAHL: I do not understand, having covered the White House for as long as I did, how he [Gannon] got, I just don't get it, how he got a press pass on a false name, on an alias, I don't know how that happened. You have to be cleared through the Secret Service in order to get a press pass, which you have to wear at all times. I mean, there's something behind this story which hasn't come out, clearly. My God!
MAHER: I'm going to suggest what that is. Because not only did he have a press pass, but apparently he got scoops that other reporters didn't get. He got the one before anybody else had it on your boy Dan Rather when he got in trouble with the Swift Boat [Veterans for Truth] reporting. He got the story on the attack of Baghdad when we started the [Iraqi] War in March of 2003--four hours before anybody else got it.
Now, I don't want to start rumors here, but isn't it sort of obvious that he had a boyfriend in the White House?
Somebody at the highest level was spilling the beans while he was "spilling the beans."
STAHL: How did he get a Secret Service press pass? How did that happen? Okay, someone leaked stories, and of course we won't have an investigation of that, will we? But, how did he get a Secret Service press pass? With an alias? I mean, really, I cannot figure it out.
MAHER: Well, what do you think of my suggestion?
STAHL: Well, I'm saying, once he got into the White House, fine, someone was leaking him stories, but let's -- I'm asking, how he gets through the F.B.I. clearance and the Secret Service? How does that happen?
MAHER: Well, I think there was a mole in the White House...or maybe a gerbil.
[END PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT. VIDEO AVAILABLE HERE].
The Advocate can't help but wonder whether the above comments from Biden and Stahl signal a commitment from the political and media establishment to follow up on the Gannongate story.
That said, the message from Biden to the media is clear: the Democratic Party can't build up the momentum it needs to have this issue heard in the halls of Congress if the media doesn't give Gannongate the coverage it so richly deserves as (to use Biden's characterization) a "security breach."
Indeed.
Fortunately, Raw Story is already reporting that The New Yorker and "a broad array of mainstream publications and television networks are aggressively pursuing various angles of the burgeoning scandal surrounding discredited White House reporter Jeff Gannon." |
