Will President Bush Fire Himself?

[Mugg Mann]

Compare these two stories; is the President a man of his word or not?

From the White House press briefing on October 6, 2003

Q: But can you confirm that the President would fire anyone on his staff found to have leaked classified information?

McClellan: I think I made that very clear last week. The topic came up, and I said that if anyone in this administration was responsible for the leaking of classified information, they would no longer work in this administration.
Here is Scott McClellan again on October 7, 2003....
McClellan: If someone leaked classified information, the President wants to know. If someone in this administration leaked classified information, they will no longer be a part of this administration, because that's not the way this White House operates, that's not the way this President expects people in his administration to conduct their business.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031006-5.html#6


Today's Breaking news;

Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak on Iraq
By PETE YOST, AP

WASHINGTON (April 6) - Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.
Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say. According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

But the disclosure in documents filed Wednesday means that the president and the vice president put Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

The authorization came as the Bush administration faced mounting criticism about its failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main reason the president and his aides had given for justifying the invasion of Iraq.

Libby's participation in a critical conversation with Miller on July 8, 2003 "occurred only after the vice president advised the defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate," the papers by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated. The filing did not specify the "certain information."

"Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller -- getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval -- were unique in his recollection," the papers added.


http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060406121209990007&ncid=NWS00010000000001

 

[Chicago526]

Will he fire himself? I don't know but so far he's only managed to shoot himself in the foot!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Yes, but he's got to take his foot out of his mouth if he's not going to kill himself doing it....

 

[FergieTCat]

This isn't the first time he's contradicted himself and it won't be the last.

 

[wvrevy]

Of course not, you fool...rules and consistancy are for those peons in the masses. You don't actually expect them to take their talk of "personal accountability" or "bringing honor back to the office" seriously, do you?

 

[salmoneous]

When are you whiners going to finally get it - unless it involves lying about sex, everything is president does is automatically OK *because he is the president*.

 

[Mugg Mann]

Of course not, you fool...rules and consistancy are for those peons in the masses. You don't actually expect them to take their talk of "personal accountability" or "bringing honor back to the office" seriously, do you?

I dunno, being the optimist that I am, I thought that the "remedial ethics" classes the President required for everyone in the White House a few months back might have straightened everyone out.

Of course, since then, we've had a top advisor arrested for shoplifting in Target and another top Homeland Security official suspended without pay for soliticing a 14 year old girl, so I guess those ethics courses helped, maybe, not so much?

 

[Mugg Mann]

It's been a few hours, so I'm bumping to see if people still in the "36%" missed the thread, or if there's just no way to spin this....

 

[Charade]

This will probably be labeled as spin (but I don't care, really).

I heard on the radio today (CNN NOT Fox or one of the talking head shows) that said the President has the authority to declassify information. If that's true, and that's what he did, then I guess we'd have to ask why.

I'll wait until I have all the facts before I jump to conclusions.

 

[eclectics]

Bet we hear the old "National Security" excuse thrown around yet again, if we indeed get an apology or excuse. I'm wondering if he'll even admit he did it!

 

[marybet]

This will probably be labeled as spin (but I don't care, really).

I heard on the radio today (CNN NOT Fox or one of the talking head shows) that said the President has the authority to declassify information. If that's true, and that's what he did, then I guess we'd have to ask why.

I'll wait until I have all the facts before I jump to conclusions.

I heard them say this too. But if he declassified it than why didn't he just say so at the time? Why not just tell us the truth?

Silly me, I forgot, this administration never tells the truth about anything.

 

[bsnyder]

Where's the breaking news?

The AP reported this same "non" story back on February 9th.

I guess if it doesn't get the traction the Left is hoping for, they just recycle it a few months later?

 

[bsnyder]

I heard them say this too. But if he declassified it than why didn't he just say so at the time? Why not just tell us the truth?

Silly me, I forgot, this administration never tells the truth about anything.

The White House press corp was debriefed on the declassified NIE on July 18th. So you are quibbling over what - ten days?

 

[TCPluto]

You don't actually expect them to take their talk of "personal accountability" or "bringing honor back to the office" seriously, do you?

Absolutely. We need a man like Bill Clinton to handle this task.

 

[bsnyder]

I heard on the radio today (CNN NOT Fox or one of the talking head shows) that said the President has the authority to declassify information. If that's true, and that's what he did, then I guess we'd have to ask why.

I'll wait until I have all the facts before I jump to conclusions.

Of course it's true. And we don't have to ask why. We know why.

In the summer of 2003, the public was being fed a steady stream of distorted and inaccurate information by those who opposed the war, including Joe Wilson and insiders at CIA and State, in an effort to discredit the Bush Administration. The Administration had every right to set the record straight.

 

[yeartolate]

 

[Charade]

Absolutely. We need a man like Bill Clinton to handle this task.

Or a man like Hillary Clinton.

 

[eclectics]

Or a man like Hillary Clinton.

The Clintons are very busy but I hear Tom Delay might have some free time on his hands.

 

[Teejay32]

It's been a few hours, so I'm bumping to see if people still in the "36%" missed the thread, or if there's just no way to spin this....

They refuted Wilson's article, to his astonishment, and he must have sworn revenge by never letting us see the end of him...that's how I spin it.

 

[Free4Life11]

I'm tired of all the government secrets. What I REALLY want them to declassify is what is going on in Nevada, in that area "Groom Lake." Awfully sneaky...I want to go on a roadtrip this summer and investigate.