[Mb-civic] WORTH A LOOK: A leaky president - Joan Vennochi - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  A leaky president

By Joan Vennochi  |  April 9, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

NO WONDER the Bushes get along so well with Bill Clinton.

When they have the power, they will wield it without fear -- as long as 
they can.

With the former president, the cause was women.

Remember what Clinton told Dan Rather during a ''60 Minutes" interview 
to promote his memoir, ''My Life"? Clinton explained that he cheated 
with Monica Lewinsky, ''for the worst possible reason -- just because I 
could." With the current president, the cause was Iraq.

According to testimony provided by I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby Jr. -- 
former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney -- President Bush, through 
Cheney, authorized Libby to disclose key parts of what was until then a 
classified prewar intelligence estimate on Iraq, to bolster the case for 
war.

A president has broad discretion to declassify information. Essentially, 
this president allegedly authorized a leak -- because he could.

There is no indication at this time that Bush or Cheney authorized Libby 
to disclose the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the wife of Joseph 
Wilson, a Bush critic. Bush said in June 2004 that he would fire anyone 
in his administration shown to have leaked that information; later, Bush 
added the qualifier that it would have to be shown that a crime was 
committed.

But Bush's qualifier also brings to mind Clinton's famous denial 
regarding Lewinsky: ''I did not have sexual relations with that woman." 
The denial was all about Clinton's definition of ''sexual relations" -- 
just like Bush's statement about firing a leaker is all about whether a 
crime was committed.

But Bush should take no comfort in that dodge, not if he considers what 
happened after Clinton tried to parse the definition of ''sexual 
relations," publicly and during grand jury testimony.

Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr did not let Clinton get away with 
it. Seven months after Clinton told a national audience he did not have 
sexual relations with Lewinsky, he was back on national television, this 
time admitting, ''I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was 
not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse 
in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and 
completely responsible." Starr later used aspects of the Lewinsky matter 
to make the case that there was ''substantial and credible information" 
that Clinton committed acts that might be grounds for impeachment.

What Bush is parsing is far more serious than tawdry sexual relations in 
the Oval Office. As leftover bumper stickers from 2004 remind us, ''No 
one died when Clinton lied."

For Bush, it is becoming clearer that questions about Iraq, manipulation 
of prewar intelligence and the Bush administration's way of dealing with 
critics are gaining steam in a dangerous forum -- the case against 
Scooter Libby.

Libby is charged with lying and obstructing a federal investigation into 
whether the Bush administration revealed Plame's identity to get back at 
Wilson. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, seems to be building a case 
to show an organized effort by the Bush administration to attack Wilson 
by spinning the case for war. In defending himself, Libby is apparently 
willing to throw his superiors -- Cheney and Bush -- to the political 
wolves.

And the political wolves are circling. In the House, some Democrats have 
signed on to a resolution from Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat 
of Michigan, that demands a special committee to investigate the Bush 
administration's ''manipulation of prewar intelligence," among other 
things, and advise whether there are ''grounds for possible 
impeachment." In the Senate, Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, is 
calling for censure of Bush on another matter -- Bush's wiretapping of 
US citizens without a warrant.

Someday, when Bush sits down to write his memoirs, he can draw 
inspiration from Clinton and this passage in ''My Life":

''I had had a lot of stones cast at me, and through my own 
self-inflicted wounds I had been exposed to the whole world. In some 
ways it was liberating. I had nothing more to hide. And as I tried to 
understand why I had made my own mistakes, I also attempted to figure 
out why my adversaries were so consumed with hatred and so willing to 
say and do things inconsistent with their professed moral convictions . . ."

In the meantime, Bill Clinton had a thing about Monica Lewinsky. George 
W. Bush had a thing about Saddam Hussein. The rest is history.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/09/a_leaky_president/
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