Big News: Prez Leaked, But Not That Leak

The LA Times reports this morning that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. "Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around … we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified, be declassified. And that's exactly what we did." So the info that President Bush authorized Libby to leak was a summary of the National Intelligence Estimate and it was supposed to refute the claims of pesky White House critic Joe Wilson. Okay. And Libby testified that he leaked this classified info to New York Times reporter Judith Miller after Bush gave Cheney his personal authorization for the leak. Okay. And McClellan further said, "Declassifying information and providing it to the public, when it is in the public interest, is one thing. But leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious." Okay. McClellan meant that when the Prez leaks classified info it’s good, but leaks about the President’s illegal wiretaps are very bad. But why did the President leak the National Intelligence Estimate info when ten days later he released the info publicly? The Prez authorized the leak to NYT reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003 because at that time he did not know whether its public release would violate national security. He was hedging his bets. And lest we didn’t catch the nuance of the Libby rat-out: Libby did not say that the Prez authorized the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s undercover CIA status. Which, of course you and I know he did. But nevermind. Okay…okay…okay. We get the message. The stance of the Bush administration is that the President can do whatever he likes, whenever he likes and it will never constitute anything but a good and necessary action in the public interest and for national security. Which we all know is boloney and we know the White House knows it’s boloney. Here’s the thing: If it’s on Page One, it is NOT the Big Story. Trust Sy Hersh. The New Yorker’s Sy Hersh knows where the Big Story is. And when Sy Hersh says in the April 17th issue of the New Yorker that the White House is planning to use nukes on Iran, believe it. Nukes and what the US plans to do with them worldwide is what we should be concerned about. The White House Monkey on a Chain can’t even pronounce the word nuclear, you don’t think he's told anything about anything, do you?