Thursday, July 22, 2004
ONE BERGER, WELL-DONE
The tribulations of Sandy Berger are likely to get worse before they get better.
Let me preface my comments by saying that the political effect of this stupidity does not bring joy to my right-of-center heart. Berger was a heavyweight voice of reason on foreign policy in Democratic circles and his departure from the Kerry camp will only make things easier for the doves, transnational progressives and out and out America -hating left to influence that party's agenda. Bleah. Not good for America.
My analysis: Berger was not " stealing secrets ", more or less he probably knew generally what those documents said, having read them previously at least a couple of times while he was Clinton's APNSA. He's a patriot and that shouldn't be doubted for a second by anyone.
No, what this seems to be is a corner-cutting, political dirty-tricks move typical of the Clinton crowd in one of their innumerable clumsy attempts to cover their own ineptitude coupled with their usual "rules are made for other people" arrogance. Berger was at the Archives at Clinton's request, looking for specific documents in order to " clean the files " temporarily so the Clinton record on terror would look marginally less embarrassing. Yes, it's illegal and yes Berger knew that beforehand like few others.
Probably Richard Clark had a strong " get bin Laden " recommendation in his after-action report that Bill Clinton personally nixed or something of that nature. Now Berger will be forced, by Bill Clinton, to go through the usual stonewalling and blame the VRWC non-response that will inflame the scandal to about five orders of magnitude more than it is worth. Berger is now stuck taking the hit by his old boss and it will probably destroy him professionally.
Kerry was right to distance himself as Berger is obviously Clinton's man, not his but the scandal will stick to Kerry regardless - and if Kerry knew about theses hi-jinks, it should.
¶ 10:14 AM
The tribulations of Sandy Berger are likely to get worse before they get better.
Let me preface my comments by saying that the political effect of this stupidity does not bring joy to my right-of-center heart. Berger was a heavyweight voice of reason on foreign policy in Democratic circles and his departure from the Kerry camp will only make things easier for the doves, transnational progressives and out and out America -hating left to influence that party's agenda. Bleah. Not good for America.
My analysis: Berger was not " stealing secrets ", more or less he probably knew generally what those documents said, having read them previously at least a couple of times while he was Clinton's APNSA. He's a patriot and that shouldn't be doubted for a second by anyone.
No, what this seems to be is a corner-cutting, political dirty-tricks move typical of the Clinton crowd in one of their innumerable clumsy attempts to cover their own ineptitude coupled with their usual "rules are made for other people" arrogance. Berger was at the Archives at Clinton's request, looking for specific documents in order to " clean the files " temporarily so the Clinton record on terror would look marginally less embarrassing. Yes, it's illegal and yes Berger knew that beforehand like few others.
Probably Richard Clark had a strong " get bin Laden " recommendation in his after-action report that Bill Clinton personally nixed or something of that nature. Now Berger will be forced, by Bill Clinton, to go through the usual stonewalling and blame the VRWC non-response that will inflame the scandal to about five orders of magnitude more than it is worth. Berger is now stuck taking the hit by his old boss and it will probably destroy him professionally.
Kerry was right to distance himself as Berger is obviously Clinton's man, not his but the scandal will stick to Kerry regardless - and if Kerry knew about theses hi-jinks, it should.
¶ 10:14 AM
