House Republicans Set to Investigate Berger...that didn't take long!

[flpoljunkie]

Let's see...has there been any House or Senate investigation of the Valerie Plame leak? Whadya you think?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3665-2004Jul21.html

By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 21, 2004; 7:32 PM

WASHINGTON - The main investigative committee in the Republican-led House will look into allegations Clinton administration national security adviser Sandy Berger mishandled highly classified terrorism documents, lawmakers said Wednesday.

Even though the matter already is the subject of a Justice Department criminal probe, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis said the panel has "a constitutional responsibility to find out what happened and why."

"At best, we're looking at tremendously irresponsible handling of highly classified information," said Davis, R-Va.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said the questions the committee should answer include whether there was any attempt to cover up embarrassing materials, what happened to documents removed by Berger that are still missing and what security risk the entire episode poses.

The decision by House leaders to launch a congressional investigation came the same day the White House acknowledged that its lawyers were notified months ago about the Berger investigation. In yet another development, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed a Freedom of Information request for any correspondence about the probe between the Justice Department and the White House.

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[bluestateguy]

1. One more for old times sake!!!

How about one last Clinton Administration congressional investigation, just for old times sake?! A little 90's nostalga.

Hey, Macarena!

[Mad As Hell]

2. Well then it's clear

all of this hullabaloo is to smoke up the air to obscure the Plame indictments. They must be coming soon.

[spooky3]

3. uh, hasn't this been "under investigation" since Oct. 2003?

[acmavm]

4. Meanwhile, all investigations of republican wrong-doing never come

to any resolution. The Plame Investigation is taking forever, and that was treason.

Whatever.

[vickie]

5. These people are despicable fiends.

[lancdem]

6. If they want to further politicize this, go ahead

It just proves Kerry's and McAuliffe's point.

[Wilber_Stool]

7. Well, there goes another

70 million. Were's Ken Srarr?

[Lefty48197]

8. The Berger documents show who outed Plame

He needed to secure them, as a member of the Kerry Administration-in-waiting, before Team Bush loses them, as they did Bush's military records, or before they censored them. We can't depend on Michael Moore to secure all the important documents anymore, somebody else has to help.

[Mallove Fan 71]

9. Be patient. Didn't Marshall warn us this would happen?

This from TPM on June 28th:

"Let's say that certain individuals or organizations are responsible for some rather unfortunate misdeeds. And let's further postulate that such hypothetical individuals or organizations find out that some folks are on to them, that a story is in the works -- perhaps more than one -- and that it's coming right at them. Those individuals or organizations -- as shorthand, let's call them 'the bad actors' -- might well start trying to fight back, trying to gin up an alternative storyline to exculpate themselves and inculpate others. If that story made its way into the news, at a minimum, it might help the bad actors muddy the waters for when the real story comes out. You can see how such a regrettable turn of events might come to pass."

See his full remarks here.

It has been a central theme of the GOP propaganda machine to trot out disinformation whenever they're about to be fingered for some grievous misdeed. Their rationale is to make it a non-issue by demonstrating the political nature of their opponen't accusations.

In this instance, they time an attack with this Berger nonsense in a brazen display of partisan maneuvering. When the Plame indictments hit, they will shout from every news source about it being a ridiculous campaign ploy in retaliation for Kerry losing one of his trusted campaign advisors. "They must be really desperate," they'll say. "And look at what they've done! Stealing top secret documents is far worse than what they're accusing us of!"

The GOP mantra: "I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever hits me..." and so on. It's sickening to see just how good at it they've become.

[joanne]

10. The Democrats have GOT to take control of Congress again

A Kerry/Edwards win, as crucial as it is, is not enough!!!

Can you imagine Kerry trying to govern with these neanderthals running Congress? It will be impossible for him!


The Democrats MUST TAKE CONTROL AGAIN.

[joanne]

11. And here is a story that proves, once again, what hypocrits they are

Stalling in investigating Tom "toxic" Delay:

With speculation growing over whether the House ethics committee will take up a complaint against Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), ethics Chairman Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) said his panel would have a difficult time investigating the allegations - a clear sign that Hefley is weighing whether his panel has the capability, or jurisdiction, to undertake such a probe.

http://www.takingontomdelay.com/archives/000058.html#more

[newyawker99]

15. Hi Mallove Fan 71!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Pepperbelly]

12. LBJ hit the nail on the head...

when he noted that the only things Republicans support are lowered taxes and investigating Democrats.

[Mr.Green93]

13. when did the White House know of the Berger investigation?

[flpoljunkie]

14. The White House learned "months ago" of DOJ's Berger investigation...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/politics/22berger.html

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, July 21 - The White House said Wednesday that senior officials in its counsel's office were told by the Justice Department months ago that a criminal investigation was under way to determine if Samuel R. Berger, the national security adviser under President Bill Clinton, removed classified documents about Al Qaeda from the National Archives.

The White House declined to say who beyond the counsel's office knew about the investigation, but some administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they believed that several top aides to Mr. Bush were informed of the investigation President Bush himself declined to answer a question Wednesday about whether he had been told, saying: "I'm not going to comment on this matter. This is a serious matter, and it will be fully investigated by the Justice Department."

The disclosure of the investigation forced Mr. Berger to step down as an informal, unpaid adviser to Senator John Kerry's campaign on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the campaign accused the White House of deliberately leaking news of the investigation and said that Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in strategies to divert attention from the Sept. 11 report to be issued Thursday.

"The timing of this leak suggests that the White House is more concerned about protecting its political hide than hearing what the commission has to say about strengthening our security," a statement issued by Mr. Kerry's campaign said.

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