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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Captain Queeg

The Moose opines that the Administration is taking on water but leakers are not their problem.

The Bushies now have severely limited political capital. The war is not popular and this Administration is viewed by even its supporters as a bunch of incompetents. Republicans are jumping ship on the Dubai deal. This is a time for retooling and reaching out to build broader support for the war.

Instead, the Administration is apparently committed to suppressing leaks and prosecuting those who are suspected of even receiving leaked information. This Administration has a Captain Queeg feel to it. The Washington Post reported on Sunday,

"The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

"In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases."


Welcome to Washington, Bushies. Leaks happen. They are unfortunate, but they are a reflection, in part, of an Administration that does not have its act together. The Moose supports the NSA program, and the Bushies should be focusing its energies on making the case for it. This leak hunt, however, is only a diversion of resources that will likely not find the miscreants and further weaken the President's already abysmal political standing.

The nature of the Bushie obsession with leaks is also reflected in the prosecution of the AIPAC employees for merely receiving classified information and passing it to the media. This all has nothing to do with espionage, it is a product of the control freeks in the White House who are witnessing their Administration unraveling.

What can be accomplished with a showdown with the media? Throwing reporters in jail is not exactly going to endear the Bushies to the Fourth Estate, as if they care. If this pursuit continues, the self-absorbed media will make certain that the story dominates the news, and the Administration will continue to falter in getting its message about the war to the American people.

Bushies to see your foe look in the mirror. The enemies within are not those who pass secrets to the press, but rather the incompetents who run agencies - Homeland Security and Defense, for instance. The problem with this House is not a leak here or there but rather the foundation is coming apart.

The big problem for this Presidency is a leakage of reality.
-- Posted at 8:23 AM | Link to this post | Email this post