Entrenched in character assassination, the Bush White house is going after Paul O’Neill for all it’s worth. O’Neill, who has served under 3 republican administrations and is the best friend of Vice President Dick Cheney, is now feeling the venom of the Republican smear machine.
But O’Neill may have leaked a document classified as “Secret,” you say. Shouldn’t that be investigated?
As soon as that document was shown on 60 Minutes (do people still watch that show?), current Treasury Secretary John William Snow called for an investigation. Yet when news surfaced that someone inside the top staff of the White House leaked the name of an undercover CIA field officer, a felony under federal law, to newspaper columnist Robert Novak, it took the White House 79 days to call for an investigation.
So why the over-the-top reaction that President Bush was hunting for a reason, any reason, to invade Iraq?
Was it because the document was classified? If the document is so secret, why was it posted on Judicial Watch for such a long time with no investigation?
Oh look, another link to the “secret” document. Maybe we’ll get investigated now, too.
I don’t know what I’m more disgusted with. The Republican machine that is so ready to cut off its own arm by burying one of its own life long and devoted members, or O’Neill himself for acting like he has no common sense about the whole thing.
He has since tried to back track on his own words by doing what all Republicans eventually do — blame Clinton. O’Neill, going back on what he said previously, said that the meetings were nothing more, “than a review of Clinton’s Iraqi policy of regime change.” Too late, Paul, too late.
Mr. O’Neill, whether you see it or not the raging river is against you. Try as you might there is no paddling against that mighty torrent. It can’t be changed by going back on your words.
Sadly, it’s another page in the Republican’s book of tricks to try to keep people from speaking against the Republican armada. Quite a switch from the Clinton days, when some of the strongest rebukes of Clinton’s abhorrent personal behavior were from Democrats themselves — without fear of retribution.
“None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defense, or the president of the United States. Whatever action may be taken, whether it’s a verbal reprimand or something more stringent, is up to the commanders on the scene.”
- Gen. John Abizaid, commenting after soldiers in Iraq criticized the Bush Administration for misleading them, 7/16/03
What we are seeing is worse than open war. It’s the covert kidnapping of a person’s right of free speech. And there is one thing a President should never be protected from — the citizen’s First Amendment right.