You Want Freedom Fries with that Berger?

The Repugs apparently decided to leak the Berger story in preference to another terror scare or announcing the capture of Osama. (Do you really think they would actually have to capture him to say they did? They've announced the capture of people they announced they had killed months earlier--and how many body doubles was Saddam supposed to have?) Berger's crime, such as it is, happened last November and has been under investigation since then. Berger was apparently incredibly stupid, more fitting of the current administration than the last one, and perhaps there is some nefarious traitorous behavior involved here.

Still, the guy was National Security Advisor, with full access to basically every secret our government has. The documents he took were from the time he was in office, so he already had a good idea of what was in them. If he sold them to Osama, he should be prosecuted and shipped off to Gitmo. But that's not what the Repugs are worried about--they're worried that he shared them with the Kerry campaign!

Republicans were in an uproar over news of the investigation. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay called it "absolutely shocking," while one leading GOP senator, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, demanded that the Kerry campaign divulge whether Berger had provided it with classified information.

Wouldn't, SHOULDN'T, a U.S. Senator already have access to that information? And is it Chambliss' goal to accuse every Vietnam veteran of treason? If you've read my blog for more than a few nanoseconds, you know that I'm no fan of Kerry's, to put it mildly. But the Repugs seem to think that there could be no worse crime than giving classified information to a man who already has access to it, and should, since he may well be our next president. And Tom DeLay's very existence on the planet is "absolutely shocking" as far as I'm concerned.

Some day, we'll see a list of Karl Rove's headline makers for 2004--Indict some "terrorists," orange alert, some real or made-up story of a Kerry sexual dalliance, unspecified terror warning, tough talk against Iran or Cuba, orange alert, announce Osama's capture--and make the Berger investigation a big story.