July 25, 2005 - Most of us who were born before Jack Kennedy died remember Senator Howard Baker’s question. Not even the men and women at the head of President Nixon’s Enemies List voiced the opinion that he had anything to do with hatching the bungled burglary to tap the telephones at the DNR’s Watergate offices. That is not what Senator Baker (R-TN) was getting at. His question, repeated over and over, came after the massive cover-up unraveled in the face of Deep Throat’s revelations. When the Senator’s question was finally answered it brought down the Presidency and left us a legacy of distrust and suspicion that infests our political life to this day.

Senator Baker’s question is being asked again with more and more frequency and it is being asked by Republican as well as Democrat partisans. What did President Bush know in the fall of 2003 when he assured us that no one wanted to get to the bottom more than did he? When it emerged that the President’s closest political advisor and the Vice-President’s Chief of Staff were at the center of leaking Valerie Wilson’s identity the question took on a heightened significance. It raised a new corollary or two. When did the President learn that Rove and Libby were at the core of the controversy? When did he confront Karl Rove with the question? Was it before Scott McClellan was sent out to tell the press that the idea that Rove and Libby had anything to do with the leak was preposterous? Did he know what his troops were up to when they launched their campaign to discredit Joe Wilson?...click here for entire article

That seems to be the difference between the OSS of sixty years ago and its successor CIA of today. Then those men and women who risked their lives for their country were supported by their government and honored for their service. Now the men and women who put their lives on the line for the Agency must keep a constant lookout over their shoulders – not to protect themselves from the enemy but to guard against betrayal should the results of their work not fit the preconceived notions of the President and Vice President. That is the lesson of Rove & Libby v. Plame. That is the result of the politicization of the intelligence services under this administration...click here for entire article

July 13, 2005 - On July 7th four suicide bombers from the English city of Leeds struck in London at rush hour and brought the city’s transportation system to a halt. The bombers did not sneak into Britain using false passports and stolen identities. They did not import the explosives that they used. No amount of airport security could have intercepted this attack. No amount of surveillance could have detected the plot before the coordinated explosions erupted. The four men who carried out the plan were born in England, raised and educated in England, and struck with weapons that were constructed in a house in Leeds. They struck in London where CCTV cameras capture and document every movement. Indeed they were captured on video tape making their way to their appointment with their destiny.

No battalions battling terrorists in Basra deterred the four Englishmen from striking at the calm complacency of the English. Fighting them “over there” in Iraq did not prevent them from striking “over here” in London. President Bush wants us to believe that we are winning the war against terrorists. He wants us to believe that we are safer here because more than 1750 Americans have been sacrificed over there. He wants us to believe that by engaging in wars of conquest in Afghanistan and Iraq we are keeping terrorists from our shores....click here for entire article

July 12, 2005 - They say that if you remember the Sixties you weren’t really there. Perhaps President Bush remembers some of that cloudy decade but if he does it really isn’t much. He may have floated through the folk song era flying well above the fray but this week he may be reflecting on the lyric to one of Harry Bellefonte’s hits. The song opened with:”A Roving, A Roving, Since Roving’s been my Rue-Eye-In”. Today the Whitehouse has discovered a new reverence for the sanctity of judicial investigation, declining to comment on the revelations that the very idea that Karl Rove had anything to do with outing Valerie Plame is not so preposterous after all. Scott McClellan would really like to talk about it but, with an investigation going on this really isn’t the right time.

Scotty may want to study one of his predecessors as a spokesman for a troubled Presidency. It was Ron Ziegler who had to declare the unequivocal denials of his President “inoperable” as the truth oozed out. But then Ron had to deal with the likes of Chuck Colson and the whole Watergate team. Scotty has it easier. He just has to deal with the likes of Karl, Dick, and Don....click here for entire article