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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (29691)	10/7/2003 6:00:44 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

The Bush Administration has had so many scandals and has, so far, escaped any comeuppance. And they called Bill the "teflon president". It's appalling what Bush continues to do and get away with.

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (29691)	10/7/2003 6:35:12 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

The CIA leak "isn't a partisan issue, it's a matter of national security." And it's another way the Bushies are pissing on Americans. I don't understand why they aren't being brought to justice: Republicans question motive for CIA leak By DAVID GOLDSTEIN bayarea.com Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - Amid the partisan debate over whether an independent counsel is needed to investigate the leak of a CIA agent's name, some Republicans are raising a more basic political question: Why leak the name of a possibly covert CIA operative who is also the wife of a critic of the Iraq war in the first place? Several Republicans said they were struggling to find any political pluses for the president, on whose behalf the leaking was allegedly done. "It doesn't make any sense," said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It's very stupid. It just seems like something an administration would not want to do under any circumstances." As the story has unfolded, someone in the administration supposedly leaked classified information that Valerie Plame, the wife of Joseph C. Wilson, was a CIA agent. Wilson is a former ambassador whom the CIA sent to Africa to find evidence that Iraq was trying to gain uranium for nuclear weapons. He returned empty-handed, and subsequently embarrassed the Bush administration, which, in its effort to justify war with Iraq, had been insisting that the uranium story was true. "How do you embarrass Mr. Wilson by saying that his wife is in the CIA?" asked Republican Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri. "It just seems to me to be stupid. If you're going to try to discredit a guy because of his comments on intelligence, you don't say his wife's in the CIA. That would make him more credible." Neither Roberts nor Talent supported the growing calls among Democrats for an independent counsel to investigate the leak. A "purely political effort," Bond said. The Justice Department has opened a full-scale investigation that will be directed by career prosecutors in its counterespionage section and led by agents from the FBI's inspections division. Justice has asked the White House to preserve documents that could be related to the investigation, including papers, phone records, tapes, computer files and other materials. The investigation also will cover the State and Defense departments. A growing chorus of Democrats, however, has pushed for the appointment of a special counsel, or for Attorney General John Ashcroft to at least recuse himself. They contend that he has the appearance of a conflict of interest because of his close ties to administration officials. Chief among them is Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser and a former political consultant to Ashcroft during several of his past campaigns when he ran successfully for governor and senator in Missouri. Ashcroft paid Rove's former Texas-based direct-mail company more than $300,000 for work on his 1994 Senate campaign, according to campaign finance reports. "This can't be a wink and a nod once-over from the president's friend - and Karl Rove's client - John Ashcroft and his very political staff," Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is running for president, said through an aide. "The only way to get to the truth is to have someone independent of politics." Ashcroft recused himself from a 2001 federal probe of former Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey. Torricelli had headed his party campaign committee and had campaigned against Ashcroft when he was running for re-election to the Senate in 2000. Spokesmen for the White House and Justice Department have said no options concerning the leak investigation have been ruled out. "The president has made it very clear that he wants to get to the bottom of this," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last week. "Unfortunately, there are some that are looking through the lens of political opportunism. There are some that are seeking partisan political advantage." Talent, who holds the Senate seat that had once been Ashcroft's, said he has no doubt about the attorney's general's impartiality. "John Ashcroft has a law enforcement mentality," Talent said. " … I don't have any question in my mind that he'll take this wherever it leads." The House Government Reform Committee also plans to look into the leak. Roberts, however, said he was not sure how that committee has any jurisdiction in the matter, but "with certain kinds of leaks, things do get political." He said that with an investigation by the Justice Department already under way, his own committee has no plans to look into the issue. One Democrat who said he has no qualms about having the Justice Department handle the probe was Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri. "I think they'll do a good job," he said. "You only have a handful of people in the White House who knew of her (Plame's) role. You only have a handful of people who talk to the news media. That narrows the search down a great deal." Skelton, who used to serve on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was "absolutely outraged" by the leaks and would like to see someone prosecuted. "This isn't political," he said. "This is national security."